Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized the sentencing to death of a Nigerian man on Monday in the nation’s first-ever virtual ruling.
HRW said the decision to impose the death penalty was “inherently cruel and inhumane”. The virtual sitting of the court was done through the cloud-based video conferencing service, Zoom.
The ruling, made during the state’s coronavirus lockdown, saw Olalekan Hameed, a driver, sentenced to death by hanging for the 2018 murder of 76-year-old Jolasun Okunsanya, the mother of his employer.
While HRW commended the virtual sitting as a sign of commitment to dispensing justice, it faulted the judiciary for selecting capital punishment as the penalty for the crime committed.
“The irreversible punishment is archaic, inherently cruel and inhuman, it should be abolished,” Human Rights Watch told the BBC.
According to Nigerian law, State governors must authorise death sentences before they can be carried out. It is not yet known whether Hameed will appeal against the decision.
Nigeria has been under pressure from local and international human rights groups to abolish the death penalty.
