Military death penalty to be abolished in Fiji

Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum of Fiji has announced that the death penalty will be removed from the country's military law. The Fiji Times's article can be found here. According to the UN Draft Principles Governing the Administration of Justice Through Military Tribunals (also known as the Decaux Principles), "Codes of military justice should reflect the international trend towards the gradual abolition of the death penalty, in both peacetime and wartime." Through §§ 2 and 23, The Royal Fiji Military Forces Act c. 81 adopts the British Army Act 1955 and successor legislation. The death penalty is referred to in § 38:

38. Where a conviction by court martial involves sentence of death-

(a) the sentence shall not in any case be executed until the expiration of the period within which an application for leave of appeal to the Court of Appeal against the conviction must be lodged; and

(b) if such an application is duly lodged the sentence shall not be executed until either the application is finally refused or is withdrawn or the appeal is determined or abandoned:

Provided that, where a sentence of death passed on a person on active service by a court martial is confirmed and the officer who confirms the sentence certifies that it is essential in the interests of discipline and for the purposes of securing the safety of the force with which that person is present that the sentence should be carried out forthwith, the foregoing provisions of this section shall not apply to the sentence.