ZIMBABWE – Zimbabwe abolishes death penalty almost 20-years after the last capital punishment was carried out. Zimbabwe has officially abolished the death penalty after President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed into law a bill on Tuesday which will commute sentences of around 60 prisoners on death row to jail time. The last execution was carried out almost two-decades ago in 2005, partly because at one point no one was willing to take up the job of state executioner. President Mnangagwa faced the death penalty himself in the 1960s during Zimbabwe’s war of independence. Amnesty International hailed the new law on Tuesday. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the human rights organisation labelled the move as great progress for the country, and a major milestone in ending “cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment”. They also described it as a “beacon of hope for the abolitionist movement in the region”. (Euronews)