sentencing to life imprisonment which occurred when the High Court, on 18 May 2006, changed his conviction from rape to gang rape. 94. The Court notes that in the instant case, the amendment referenced by the Second Applicant, which substituted life imprisonment with corporal punishment, that is strokes of the cane, was effected in 2007 without any provision for retrospective application as stated under Section 73 of the Respondent State’s Interpretation Act. 95. In assessing the legality of the above cited domestic law and decisions against international norms, this Court recalls that pursuant to Article 15(1) of the ICCPR: No one shall be held guilty of any criminal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time when the criminal offence was committed. If, subsequent to the commission of the offence, provision is made by law for the imposition of a lighter penalty, the offender shall benefit thereby. 96. The Court also takes note of the gradually emerging consensus in international human rights case-law on the retrospective application of lenient penalties especially in criminal law, including legislation enacted after the commission of the offence. This trend is exemplified by the case of Scoppola v. Italy, where the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) held that inflicting a heavier penalty for the sole reason that it was prescribed at the time of the commission of the offence would mean applying to the defendant's detriment the rules governing the succession of criminal laws in time.35 The ECHR has specifically held in Jidic v. Romania, that where there are differences between the criminal law in force at the time of the commission of an offence and subsequent criminal laws enacted before a 35 Scoppola v. Italy (no. 2) [GC], (Application no. 10249/03), Judgment, European Court of Human Rights (17 September 2009), para 106-108. 24