Indravani Pamela Ramjattan had suffered years of violent abuse at his hands. Days before the murder, she ran away. Indravani Pamela Ramjattan was sentenced to death along with two men who came to rescue her. The Special Rapporteur stated that the death penalty was too harsh a punishment for crimes committed in such situations. Indravani Pamela Ramjattan remained in prison under sentence of death at the end of the year.
Many governments still use the death penalty to terrorize their opponents.
In 1998, three years after the execution in Nigeria of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni for political reasons provoked widespread condemnation, people still faced political trials for capital offences. In April former Deputy Head of State General Oladipo Diya and five others were sentenced to death after secret and grossly unfair trials. The sentences were commuted later in the year after the Head of State died. In Iran, Ruhollah Rawhani, a member of the Baha'i religious minority, was executed in July 1998. He had been arrested with two other men and convicted of being involved in the conversion of a Muslim woman to the Baha'i faith, even though she stated that she had been raised as a Baha'i by her parents.