120. The Court notes that the Applicant in the present Application does not
challenge the power of the domestic courts to impose the death sentence.
His allegations revolve around the issues of legality of the mandatory death
sentence, and whether its imposition was in abidance with fair trial, namely
whether the judicial officer had the leeway to consider circumstances
peculiar to the case. The Court will consider these two issues in turn.
121. Regarding the condition of legality, the Court notes that the death sentence
is provided for in Section 197 of the Penal Code of the Respondent State.
The requirement that the penalty should be provided by law is thus met. The
Court considers that, while the Applicant seems to also challenge the
legality of the mandatory imposition of the death penalty in light of
international law, his submissions in this respect rather revolve around the
seriousness of the offence and the specific circumstances of the offender.
As such, the challenge is not on the legality of the mandatory imposition of
the death sentence but rather on the requirement of fairness in imposing the
said sentence, which will be examined subsequently.
122. With regards to abidance by fair trial, the Applicant’s argument is two-fold,
namely, whether the mandatory imposition was cognisant, firstly, of the
nature of the offence and, second, of the circumstances of the offenders.
123. On the nature of the offence, the Court notes the Applicant’s averment that
the Respondent State did not prove how the offence in his case was of such
seriousness and gravity that it warranted the mandatory imposition of the
death penalty.
124. The Court takes note of Article 6(2) of the ICCPR, which provides that “In
countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death
may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the
law in force at the time of the commission of the crime and not contrary to
the provisions of the present Covenant and to the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide ...”.
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