Sark hangs on to death penalty

SARK has snubbed the European Convention on Human Rights by refusing to 'abolish the death penalty in all circumstances'. Members of Chief Pleas rejected a call to extend to Sark Protocol 13 of the convention - which has already been signed by the United Kingdom and approved in Guernsey and Alderney. In a short debate, tenant Jonathan Brannam pointed out that the protocol included crimes committed in times of war or under its imminent threat. He said that when the life of a nation was under threat, it asked its servicemen to defend that nation with their lives. 'This protocol guarantees that traitorous actions in those circumstances will not be punishable by death,' he said. 'I cannot support this, it is a bad law.' Seneschal Reg Guille pointed out that those who declared war on the island's behalf had already agreed to the abolition called for by the convention. He also mentioned that the Lord Chancellor's Department had asked that the result of the debate be relayed to it as soon as possible. When the vote was taken, only a few members voted by show of hands in favour of the proposal and it was rejected. To general laughter when the result was announced, one member remarked: 'That will please Lord Irvine.'