ABSTRACT: The real problem in Islamic countries is not the persistence of capital punishment, but rather the absence of juridical guaranties. At any rate, the fundamentalists "do not reflect the reality of Islam..." In Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia, for instance, an evolution of the trial law is under way.

(1994 - IL QUOTIDIANO RADICALE, 26 October 1993)

"Oh faithful, the law of retaliation was ordered to you in cases of homicide. To you there is a life at issue. Oh men of intellect, perhaps thus you will fear God".

Coran, Sura, verses 178 and 179

Many verses of the Coran refer to capital punishment, and there are many Islamic countries where beheading with a sword is practiced. Age-old and deep-seated religious traditions legitimate capital punishment in the eyes of the community and in the regulations of the State, not as a punishment but as a release. Nonetheless, the death penalty has little to do with the degree of development of a country.

The real danger lies in the fact that capital punishment is devoid of any juridical guaranties, as in Iran, where there is neither a jurisdiction nor a defense counsel for the defendant, and almost ten thousand inmates have been killed, or in the Gulf countries, or in Afghanistan or in Pakistan. This said, in Europe there is a distorted conception of Islam, which is seen as the reflection of the fundamentalists that practice Sharia, the law of retaliation. But the fundamentalists are neither the reflection of the reality of Islam nor of its progress on the issue of human rights.

In Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia there is an evolution of the trial legislation. In other Islamic Arab countries penal codes have been adopted which provide for the death penalty, but guaranties are nonetheless laid down, such as the right to legal representation, resorting to the supreme court and pardon.

In Tunisia, which is ad advanced country as far as the personal status, freedom and civil rights are concerned, a strong abolitionist tendency is present. When, on November 7 1987, Ben Ali was elected president of the Republic, he declared in an interview with Le Monde that we was against the application of capital punishment. Since then there have been dozens of death sentences, but the president has always granted pardon, with the only exception of an adult who had sexually abused and killed dozens of children.