During 1998, four detainees were sentenced to death. What distinguishes this year from others is that the death penalty was executed against two detainees out of four, by an order from Yasser Arafat.

On 30 August 1998, Muhammad Kamal Abu Sultan (28, married and father to one child, from Jabalia – Gaza, working for the MI) and Ra’ed Kamal Abu Sultan (24, single, from Jabalia, working for the border forces) were gunned down at the Palestinian Police headquarters in Gaza. On 29 August 1998, the Military Court in Gaza sentenced the two brothers, together with their third brother Faris (30, married and father to 3 children, from al-Nusseirat refugee camp, working for the GI), to death for the murder of two brothers from al-Khaldi family: Muhammad Ibrahim Ribah al-Khaldi and Majdi Ibrahim Ribah al-Khaldi.

Muhammad al-Khaldi worked in the Political Direction. His brother Majdi worked for the GI.

Those who attended the execution were: Minister of Justice Freih Abu Midein, Minister of Housing Abdul Rahman Hamad, Minister of Industry Sa’adi al-Karnaz, Palestinian Legislative Council members Kamal al-Sharafi (head of the Public Monitoring Committee for Human Rights), and Rawhi Fattuh (PLC Secretary), Jamileh Seidam, Jawad al-Tibi, Jalal al-Masdar, members from the security forces, and ten members from al-Khaldi family.

Since the arrival of the PNA through 27 August 1998, the Military and State Security Courts sentenced 20 detainees to death. However, President Arafat did not order the execution of any of these sentences. Many organizations, active institutions and even citizens, had hoped that this punishment would be cancelled and removed from the future Palestinian Constitution.

Capital punishment is one of the punishments recorded in the civil laws of the West Bank and Gaza Strip prior to 1967, and the Palestinian Revolutionary Law of 1979, that is applied in military courts and state security courts. On 2 June 1971, the Israeli Military Order number 395, on the periphery of Article 22, cancelled capital punishment and replaced it with lifetime imprisonment (order by local criminal courts, including murder). Following the arrival of the PNA, decision number One for 1994 was released by President Arafat, stating that the laws and regulations that were established on 5 June 1967, remain legitimate in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, until they are united. According to this decision, all local courts (criminal, military, and state security courts), have adopted capital punishment. Since the arrival of the PNA until today, 23 people have been sentenced to death. Four out of the 23 were sentenced in criminal courts, 12 of them in military courts, and 7 others in state security courts.

The PHRMG points out the dangers of sentencing people to capital punishment in general, and the execution of the punishment in particular, for the following reasons:

1. The injustice of some courts: most hearings that were held in the State Security Courts were illegal. Hearings were held only a few hours following an arrest, took place in the middle of the night, were brief, and did not allow the detainee to prepare an appropriate defense. For example, during the court hearing of Rajeh Khalil Abu Sitteh’s, including the hearings of two others (Riyad Abu Susin and Arafat Abu Shabab), the death sentence by strangling was announced within 15 minutes of the hearing, to take place at 3 in the morning on 27 August 1998. Furthermore, on 6 March 1997, three people (Kheir Eddine al-Bheissi, Faris al-Bheissi, and Muhammad al-Bheissi) were sentenced to death 36 hours following their arrest on the charge of murdering PSS officer Ismai’il Hassuneh.
2. The PLC did not approve the use of capital punishment.
3. The possibility of the suspect being innocent. Sometimes, there is not enough evidence proving that the suspect is guilty. If he is executed and then proven innocent, there is no way to bring him back to life.
4. There is no proof that capital punishment lowers crime rate.
5. Only God has the right to take a man’s life, even if a crime was committed.
6. Capital punishment violates a man’s right to life.

When we speak of Islam, we need to look into its four complimentary and intertwined paths: ideology, worship, ethics, and conduct.

I am going to discuss the path of conduct, which is discussed in 80 verses out of the 6,000 verses that appear in the Holy Koran. According to these facts, applying the Islamic Shari’a (the revealed law of Islam), by punishing persons; whether by executing them, whipping them, or cutting their arms off, without taking the other aspects of Islam into consideration, is a form of ignorance, or perhaps ruse, as was the case during the final stages of General Ja’afar Namiri’s rule in Sudan.

With an understanding of Islam, its general, deep and comprehensive framework, the verses on conduct only appeared in the Holy Koran 13 years following the Mission (the spread of Islam). Verses related to ideology and the promotion of faith appeared prior to the verses on conduct, simply because applying conduct, establishing rules, and conducting punishments, requires an experienced conscious, deep religious awareness, and deep-rooted faith, in addition to the existence of an atmosphere of justice, virtue, frugality, and tolerance.

I am going to state eight principles to clarify the notion of capital punishment in Islamic Law.

1. According to the Holy Koran, people join Islam out of choice and contentedness. They are not forced into it. Therefore, it is unaccepted to kill, beat, or insult a person, confiscate his property and money, to force him into Islam.
2. God created man a free man, and among the liberties He gave to man is political freedom that gives him the right to oppose. Sa’ad Ibn Ibadah, a Companion of the Prophet Muhammad, opposed the first as well as the second Caliphs (successors of the Prophet Muhammad), and reserved his right to oppose their succession, and he was not executed by the state because of his opposition. The Holy Koran states that no person shall be killed, imprisoned, or tortured because of his political views.
3. Muslims believe that God created all men equal, and should therefore remain so regardless of his color, race, religious background, class, or opinion. God set the rules of equality in conduct, daily life, and civil law. According to the Koran, Islam does not permit a Muslim to attack his fellow man, simply because he is not Muslim. The Koran divided persons who are not Muslim into two kinds: the peaceful on one side, and the violent on the other.
4. Islam concentrates on the sacredness of blood, honor, dignity, and possessions. It restrains enmity and hatred, and warns to punish oppressors. It also clarifies that God considers the ill treatment of human beings a major crime, and a dereliction of worship. To turn to God in repentance for dereliction of worship does not require any measures, but repenting from oppressing people requires restoring the oppressed their rights.
5. The Merciful, the Compassionate, the Forgiving, and the Much-Forgiving, are from the 99 attributes of God. They are attributes that lay the foundation for forgiveness and tolerance among people. The Prophet Muhammad forgave as much people as he could, and tolerated his enemies. On the eighth year of al-Hijrah, the day Mecca was conquered, he forgave the leaders of the Qureish clan who hurt him, persecuted him, and fought him. He told them: “Go! You are free.” The Prophet also forgave the killer of Hamzah Ibn Abd al-Muttaleb, and Hind, the daughter of ‘Atbah, who cheered the murder of his uncle during the battle of Uhud.
6. The Prophet ordered the interpretation of the Shubha (suspicion) verse, promoting the suspect: “Avoid punishing suspects.” This also appeared in the Roman law: “In criminal cases, have mercy.”

   Islam placed impossible measures to determine some crimes. This proves that the aim of making the punishment more severe is to prevent and protect and not to take revenge or disdain mankind, or take a human life frivolously.

7. Many criminals have been sentenced to Capital punishment Its execution however, might cause damage if those who met it were innocent. Thus, the safety of the society might become at stake. The Prophet refused chopping off the heads of criminals who were enemies to Islam and a threat to Muslims. He said: “So that the Arabs would not say that Muhammad kills his friends.”

If justice and goodness for the people cause harm to one individual, many individuals, or the whole society, then freezing or postponing or even canceling an execution becomes an order that must be applied in the jurisdiction based on the Sharia’a.

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