Sierra Leone's president signs a bill abolishing the death penalty, declaring the West African country had 'exorcised horrors of a cruel past'
After long resisting a formal ban on capital punishment, the government announced abolition plans in May. The parliament then voted in favour in July.
The European Union's diplomatic service said in a statement that Sierra Leone's move "enhances the respect for human dignity in the country and reflects the growing trend in Africa and around the world to confine capital punishment to the history books.”Sierra Leone's 1991 constitution allowed the use of the death penalty for aggravated robbery, murder, treason and mutiny.
A truth and reconciliation commission set up in 2005 to investigate the brutal conflict recommended outlawing the death penalty, calling it "an affront to civilised society.”
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