Pubdate: Mon, 15 Jan 2007
Source: Gulf Daily News (Bahrain)
Copyright: 2007 Gulf Daily News.
Contact:  http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2979
Author: Geoffrey Bew

'SCRAP DEATH FOR DRUG OFFENDERS'

MANY drug smugglers are not hardened criminals but victims of poverty 
and should not face the death sentence in Bahrain, says a senior 
Shura Council member.

Bahrain should scrap the death penalty for drug traffickers, says 
foreign, defence and national security committee chairman Dr Shaikh 
Khalid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa.

He has called for the 1973 Penal Law to be amended and the death 
penalty to be replaced with life imprisonment, which he believes is a 
more suitable punishment.

"I am proposing this amendment for a very simple reason, the fact 
that drug traffickers themselves are often victims of larger 
organisations," Dr Shaikh Khalid told the GDN yesterday.

"People think the drug smugglers are evil and they know what they are 
doing, but most of them actually do not know what they are doing.

"They usually come, especially to Bahrain, from developing countries 
and they are from villages and know nothing about the dangers of 
drugs or the penalties that follow drug trafficking."

Dr Shaikh Khalid said no-one had ever been executed in Bahrain for 
drug-related offences since the law was introduced.

But he says this only strengthens his argument that it should be 
removed from the statute.

"No single execution has taken place," he said.

"The law is there, but it will just spoil the name of Bahrain 
internationally, especially with the human rights organisations."

Dr Shaikh Khalid said that in Islamic law the death penalty was only 
given to people who deliberately kill others and he argued drug 
smugglers did not have that intent.

He said the fight against drugs must be tackled through examining the 
reasons why people end up in it and not merely through punitive measures.

Dr Shaikh Khalid called for more government money to be used to 
educate young people against the dangers of drugs in schools and universities.

"We have harsh sentences in Bahrain, but at the same time we should 
understand how we can solve the problem without creating another 
negative," he said.

"Statistics have proved that in countries that carry the death 
penalty for those who smuggle drugs, it is not effective.

"Data shows that drug trafficking is increasing despite the harsh 
penalty (in Bahrain).

"We don't require such laws, we need laws that go well with the 
international understanding, like in the Western democracies, we 
should learn from them.

"Life in prison is harder than the death penalty because it is a much 
better lesson and is a better deterrent."

Dr Shaikh Khalid believes there is support for the amendment among 
his colleagues and the public.

His proposal will be brought up at a discussion about the country's 
drug laws at the Shura Council today and, if approved, will go to 
parliament for consideration. 
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