JUSTICE: Gambia confirms nine firing squad executions

A week after Gambian President Yahya Jammeh announced he would push for the executions of all the country's death row inmates, the interior ministry said that nine prisoners have been executed by firing squad.

Monday's statement from the interior ministry said that six civilians and three members of the military had been executed on Sunday when their appeal processes for a stay in execution had run out.

All of the executed prisoners were guilty of crimes involving murder. One of the nine was a woman.

"The general public is hereby warned that the rule of law as regards the peace and stability and the protection of lives, property and liberty will not be compromised for whatever reason," read the statement.

Jammeh's comments last week drew criticism from both the African Union and the European Union. He said he wanted to execute all of Gambia's 47 death row inmates by mid-September.

"I demand the immediate halt of the executions," the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, said in a statement on Sunday. She added the European Union would "urgently consider an appropriate response."

mz/jm (Reuters, AFP).

Source: DW (28/08/2012): http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16197521,00.html