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Reintroduction of death penalty not ruled out — Attorney General
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams
“I am not sure you can say we do not want the death penalty, cabinet has not made a decision on it as yet,” said Attorney General, Basil Williams at his most recent press conference.
The Minister admitted that Cabinet is yet to look carefully at the matter and make a decision despite the fact that Guyana has recent legislation that directs the death penalty to be used against terrorists.
Williams told the media that he can neither say whether his government is for or against the death penalty.
He said, “I do not want to speculate on what Cabinet will do. My government has not discussed the matter and I do not want to prejudice any discussions.”
Williams said that the international community seems to be having mixed emotions on the matter.
“On the one hand, there is the call for the abolition of the death penalty and on the other they are imposing to have a requirement to have dissuasive legislation; meaning that in your legislation, there should be provisions that would make terrorists think twice in seeing Guyana as a soft target to launch terrorist activities against,” said Williams.
Guyana’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act has provisions for the imposition of the death penalty as a punishment for terrorism.
This penalty is coupled with a $15M-$20M fine.
Williams said that that is the extent of dissuasive measures taken by Guyana.
The Attorney General said that any terrorist doing a “feasibility study” on Guyana and sees a death penalty together with a fine will definitely think twice.
“The terrorist may want to know if he is going to be sentenced what is the relevance of a fine. I think the thinking could be that when a terrorist examines Guyana and does a feasibility study and he sees a fine of $20M together with death, he might decide that this is a bunch of crazy people and look for another destination,” said Williams.
Williams was questioned as to whether he thinks a re-introduction of the death penalty for heinous domestic crimes will serve as a deterrent. He repeated that he does not want prejudice cabinet discussions.
However, he said that for domestic crimes, strong deterrents are not enough.
Williams said that to truly address crime, the causes must be tackled. “What I can tell you is that the causes of crime are fundamental. You cannot deal with crime unless you deal with the causes, such as poverty and ignorance. These contribute to crime, so it is not just a question of deterrent.
Williams said Guyana is so far allowing the death penalty for terrorism “only to exist the strong arms of the Financial Action Task Force. If the requirements are not satisfied we may be blacklisted.”
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