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CRIME-ZIMBABWE-EXECUTIONS
Zimbabwe executes three convicted murderers
HARARE,
- Zimbabwe has hanged three convicted
murderers in the country's first executions since 1998 after their appeals were
overturned, the state-run Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The
paper said the men, who were hanged on Friday, killed five people in
separate
incidents, including three women and a 12-year-old girl who was also
raped.
President
Robert Mugabe's government has resisted pressure from local and
international human rights groups to abolish the death sentence in Zimbabwe.
HARARE, Zimbabwe
_ Three convicted murderers were
executed in the first hangings in Zimbabwe for three years, the
state-controlled Herald newspaper reported Tuesday.
The
three men were hanged Friday after court and clemency appeals were denied,
the newspaper said.
Two
of the murderers were convicted for killing robbery victims and the third
stabbed to death a 12-year-old girl after raping her.
One
of the executed men killed three people in house robberies in 1995 using
a pistol he stole in the first robbery.
At
least 60 people have been hanged in Zimbabwe since independence in
1980.
The
last executions were carried out in April 1998. Two convicts were hanged
for killing a man whose organs were bought by a businessman for tribal
rituals.
Soon
afterward, the government announced it was looking for a new hangman
after its
long-serving executioner died.
During
a visit to Zimbabwe in 1988, Pope John Paul II appealed to Zimbabwe to
abolish the death sentence.
No
executions were carried out for five years and several death row prisoners
had sentences commuted to life imprisonment after the Supreme Court
ruled it inhumane to delay their executions.
Political
violence and illegal occupations of white-owned farms by ruling party
militants since March 2000 have left at least 55 people dead.
One
militant has been sentenced to death for the fatal shooting of a police
officer on a farm west of Harare in April last year. His case is awaiting
appeal.
Independent
human rights groups blame most of the political violence on ruling
party militants and say few have been brought to the courts.
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