On April 16, Supreme Court Justice George Kanyeihamba,...

On April 16, Supreme Court Justice George Kanyeihamba, a former attorney general, said that the death penalty was not supposed to apply to persons who defile girls over 13, and accused those who drafted the amended Penal Code of making the death penalty apply to any person who defiles a girl under eighteen. Section 123 (1) of the 1994 amended Penal Code states: "Any person who unlawfully has sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 18 years is guilty of an offense and liable to suffer death." But Kanyeihamba in a rare revelation said the committee he chaired had agreed that only those who defile girls below 13 years could suffer death. Kanyeihamba, during the on-going Judicial Seminar on Refugees and Asylum at Makerere University Faculty of Law, was responding to concerns raised following a presentation by Ms Sharryn Aiken of the Centre for Refugee Studies, York University, Canada. She had said one could be granted asylum if fleeing excessive punishment meted by laws in his/her country. The Supreme Court Registrar, Masalu Musene, and High Court Judge Justice Ogola asked whether treason and defilement criminals punishable by death in Uganda could be granted asylum on grounds that the punishment is excessive. Dr. Hugo Storey of the International Association of Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ) said the death penalty was internationally considered inhuman and degrading. But Kanyeihamba said the death penalty has never been defined by any international legal body as excessive.