Zimbabwe abolishes death penalty
Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa has approved a law that abolishes the death penalty in the southern African state with immediate effect.
Rights group Amnesty hailed the decision as a "beacon of hope for the abolitionist movement in the region", but expressed regret that the death penalty could be reinstated during a state of emergency.
Zimbabwe last carried out an execution by hanging in 2005, but its courts continued to hand down the death sentence for serious crimes like murder.
They will be re-sentenced by the courts, with judges ordered to consider the nature of their crime, the time they spent on death row and their personal circumstances, the state-owned Herald newspaper reports.
Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the abolition of the death penalty was "more than a legal reform; it is a statement of our commitment to justice and humanity".
Mnangagwa has been a long-standing critic of capital punishment, citing his own experience of being sentenced to death in the 1960s for blowing up a train during the guerrilla war for independence.
