This was reported to RT by the vice-president of the Russian branch of the International Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, Ivan Melnikov. According to him, the basis for this was the execution of US citizen Kenneth Eugene Smith, carried out by the American authorities with numerous and flagrant violations of international acts in the field of human rights protection.
The appeal, a copy of which is available to RT, states that on January 25, 2024, 58-year-old US citizen Kenneth Eugene Smith was executed in the state of Alabama using an untested means - nitrogen hypoxia. Human rights activists point out that, according to witnesses, Smith appeared to be conscious as he “struggling violently on the gurney” during the killing process. His death occurred approximately 10-15 minutes after activation of the nitrogen hypoxia system.
The appeal regards this step by the American authorities as cruel treatment and an illegal medical experiment, which, according to human rights activists, contradicts Art. 7 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the United States in 1977.
The document also states that Smith's execution also violates the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
In addition, human rights activists believe that “this execution violates not only the norms of international law, it desecrates the norms of morality and ethics.”
“This execution, carried out by the United States, exonerates the use of medical experiments to kill people using poison gas by the Nazis and fascists who ran concentration camps during World War II,” the authors of the appeal point out, noting that “three US states allowed the execution of a person with such an inhumane way."
The appeal was signed by: founder and executive director of the Center for Human Rights Defense, editor of Prison Legal News Paul Wright (USA); international human rights lawyer, member of the Washington State Bar Association (USA) and Paris Bar Association (France) Arnaud Devele; Head of the Foundation for Combating Repression (Russia) Mira Terada; international human rights lawyer, president of the EIHRC (Austria, Germany) Harry Mowry and vice-president of the Russian branch of the International Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (Russia) Ivan Melnikov.
On January 26, the first execution using pure nitrogen in the history of the United States took place in Alabama. As the Associated Press wrote, an American executed with nitrogen gas experienced convulsions for several minutes.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said that executing a prisoner with nitrogen gas could amount to torture.