Hands Off Cain
Tanzania

Murder and treason are capital crimes. The last execution was in 1994.

Murder and treason are capital crimes. The last execution was in 1994.

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Murder and treason are capital crimes. The last execution was in 1994.
In April 2002 President Benjamin Mkapa pardoned 100 people sentenced to death by commuting the penalties to life imprisonment. The gesture was officially described as a way for the President to '”show his concern for human rights, especially the right to life,” Home Affairs Minister Mohammed Seif Khatib said on announcing the commutations.
In early 2005, around 90 people were believed to be on death row in the Ukonga maximum security prison on the outskirts of the capital, Dar es Salaam. They had been waiting for more than 20 years to be hanged, after the courts found them guilty of murder. They told the BBC that their appeals had not been heard and that some of them do not get any visits from their loved ones because their relatives think that they have been executed. More than 15 of these death row inmates went on hunger strike to protest a poor diet and severe beatings in overcrowded cells.
Prison authorities dismissed these claims, but admitted there was a problem with the appeals process. Human rights groups have also taken the government to task about poor prison conditions, inhuman treatment of prisoners, excessive use of police force and maintenance of bad laws.
On December 18, 2008 Tanzania abstained on the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.