A Palestinian human rights group demanded that the...

A Palestinian human rights group demanded that the Palestinian Authority cancel 24 death sentences in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group said that since the Authority was established in 1994 under peace deals with Israel, 27 death sentences had been issued and three carried out. It said that of the 15 Palestinians tried by the state security court in 1999, four had received death sentences and the group added that civilians were still being tried in military courts. "We demand a fair trial for all prisoners and call for the cancellation of the 27 sentences and for the defendants to be brought before civilian courts," the rights group said in a statement. It called on the Palestinian Legislative Council to "legislate a new law to prevent the execution of capital sentence judgements".