HOC meets the Minister of Foreign Affairs El-Anrif Said Hassan

COMOROS: SECOND LEG OF THE HANDS OFF CAIN AND THE NONVIOLENT RADICAL PARTY IN AFRICA FOR THE UN MORATORIUM ON THE DEATH PENALTY

November 17, 2014: After the visit in Zimbabwe, the mission of Hands Off Cain and the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty is now in the Comoros. Objective of the mission s to promote the UN Resolution on the Universal Moratorium of the Death Penalty, which will be voted by the UN General Assembly later in December.
The delegation, composed of Sergio D’Elia, Marco Perduca and Marco Maria Freddi, met today  the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Comoros, Mr. El-Anrif Said Hassan, together with the Italian
Ambassador Luigi Scotto, to discuss the possibility to foster a vote in favor of the UN resolution – as of 2012 the Comoros have always abstained.
“The abolition of the death penalty has a humanitarian value, as it allows people to live and rehabilitate”, Minister Said Hassan, said, adding that the Government had sent to Parliament a draft bill that would have abolished the death penalty from the criminal code, but that the Assembly rejected it. “We will try with the new Parliament that will be voted in January 2015.”
As far as the UN Resolution is concerned, the Foreign Minister shared with the delegation the news that his Ministry is preparing a document on the matter that will soon be discussed by the Council of Ministers, the organ in charge of taking a decision on the vote, which, the delegation insisted, reflects the current state of affairs in the archipelago.
The delegation also visited the Moroni prison, an old structure build, when the Comoros were a French colony.
The prison director and the head of the national penitentiary agency stated that as at 17 November 2014, there were 213 prisoners, among whom five women and eight minors, in a building that legally could detain 80 people. Moreover, according to the figures of the General Prosecutor Mahammoud Soilihi, that the delegation eventually met in his office, the Moroni prison also detains six people condemned to death, the last of whom sentenced on 30 October 2012.
Tuesday 18 November, the delegation will meet the Minister of Justice and the prisoners on death row.   (Sources: HOC, 17/11/2014)