137. In order to guarantee the non-repetition of the violations at issue herein,
therefore, the Court orders the Respondent State to immediately, and in any
event within six (6) months from the date of notification of this judgment,
undertake all necessary measures to repeal the provision for the mandatory
death penalty in its Penal Code as well as the prescription for hanging as a
method of execution.
ii. Release from prison
138. The Applicants pray the Court for an order “compelling the Respondent
State to release the Applicants from detention.”
*
139. The Respondent State prays that the Applicants should not be awarded
reparations and that their prayers should be dismissed in their entirety.
***
140. Regarding the Applicants’ prayer to be released, the Court recalls that it can
only make such an order in compelling circumstances. In the present
Application, the Court notes that its findings only pertain to the sentencing
and do not, therefore, affect the conviction of the Applicants. The prayer for
release is thus not warranted. The Court, therefore, dismisses the
Applicants’ prayer for release from prison.
141. The Court considers, however, that while the Applicants’ prayer for release
is not warranted, the Applicants were sentenced to death under a regime
which did not accord the domestic courts discretion on the sentence. Given
that the Court has found the mandatory sentencing regime to be
inconsistent with the Charter, it is necessary for the Court to make an order
dealing with this sentencing regime.
36