The government of Sierra Leone will move to end the death penalty in the country.

AFP reports that Deputy justice minister Umaru Napoleon Koroma said on Wednesday, “once the legislation goes to parliament and gets approved, that ends the story of the death penalty.”

On May 6, Sierra Leone Telegraph reported that the President of the Sierra Leone Bar Association, Eddinia Michaela Swallow, took part in a roundtable discussion on the abolition of the death penalty in Sierra Leone, held at the residence of the British High Commissioner in Freetown, Simon Mustard.

In his opening address, Simon Mustard said that there are thirty countries that are yet to abolish the death penalty.

He spoke about the need for the abolition, adding that there is no proven justification that death penalty can deter crimes of the same nature.

(With Input from Agencies)