Stay of execution in Thomas, Yasseen case extended to Sunday -State has 24 hours to respond Stabroek News September 17, 1999 The state was yesterday given 24 hours to respond to the affidavit which supported the ex parte application for a stay of execution by convicted murderers, Noel Thomas and Abdool Saleem Yasseen. In the interim too, Justice Winston Moore has extended the stay of execution he granted on Sunday, until the hearing and determination of the interlocutory summons. Last Sunday, Justice Moore granted a four-day stay of the hanging of the two murderers which should have taken place the following day at 8:00 am. When the matter came up yesterday in open court, Attorney General (AG), Charles Ramson, SC, sought and obtained the extension, pointing out to the court that the certified copies of the relevant documents were only served on him on Wednesday. Ramson is appearing on behalf of the state and the Director of Prisons, Dale Erskine. The AG also gave an undertaking to the court that the state would not carry out the execution pending the hearing and determination of the summons. After hearing arguments from Ramson, and Stephen Fraser who, with Nigel Hughes and Teni Housty, is appearing for Thomas and Yasseen, Justice Moore adjourned the case to today at which time he will determine how it will proceed. Justice Moore turned down a request for Thomas and Yasseen to be present throughout the proceedings, but said that he would allow them to be present when the arguments are being heard. Thomas and Yasseen were sentenced to death at the Essequibo Assizes in 1988 for the 1987 murder of Yasseen's younger brother, Abdool Kaleem Yasseen. Having exhausted all the legal remedies available to them, they took their case to the UN Committee on Human Rights. That committee last year recommended that Thomas and Yasseen should be freed and compensated by the state, giving among reasons for its recommendation that the conditions under which they were incarcerated were inhuman and that the delay in the execution of their sentence was degrading. The government, however, disregarded the ruling which it contended was merely a recommendation and not a directive. It has since simultaneously renounced and re-acceded to the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on Political, Social and Economic Rights under which Thomas and Yasseen had appealed to the United Nations. It has, however, entered a reservation against the provision which provides for appeals to the UN Committee on Human Rights. Thomas and Yasseen moved to the court to have the state observe the ruling of the UN Committee, but it merely ruled that the Committee on the Exercise of the Prerogative of Mercy should take into account the UN Committee's ruling when determining the advice it gives to the President. Since the warrants were read to Thomas and Yasseen on September 9, Yasseen's parents and other relatives and opponents of the death penalty have appeared on a number of television programmes mobilising support for the commutation of their sentences to life imprisonment. (Patrick Denny) A © page from: Guyana: Land of Six Peoples