April 20, 2012: The UN Rights Office of Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights charged that three men sentenced to death in Hamas-run Gaza were executed unlawfully. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay’s spokesman, Rupert Colville, issued a statement in Geneva that the death sentences carried out by hanging on April 7 were not approved by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as required by law.

The UN office ordered Hamas to halt planned execution’s by firing squad. At least 18 men have been executed in Gaza since Hamas seized power in the coastal enclave in 2007. Human rights activists in Gaza state those numbers only represent official executions, not the full range of human rights violations perpetrated by Hamas.The men did not have regular access to lawyers and were tried by a military court despite being civilians.

After Hamas seized control of Gaza, several members of the rival Fatah faction were dragged from their homes and shot in both legs. Hamas has routinely incarcerated, kidnapped, maimed and tortured dissidents and political rivals in Gaza over the past five years.

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