Death penalty should not return to Turkey: Official

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Oomen-Ruijten recalls that the Turkish gov’t itself banned death penalty. AA photo

Turkey has received yet another friendly warning from a European politician about reinstating capital punishment, with the president of the Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg saying such a move would be of no use to an EU membership candidate country, which should instead focus on making further human rights reforms.

During a meeting with Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek, Laurent Mosar said that despite the progress made with regard to its relations with the EU there were still steps that should be taken to improve the human rights situation. “Reinstating the death penalty would be of no use at all after all of these steps that have been taken so far. I hope that such a law is not adopted again,” Mosar was quoted as saying by Anatolia news agency.

Only days ago, on Nov. 16, Ria Oomen-Ruijten, the European Parliament’s Turkey rapporteur, touched on the same issue, stressing that it was the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government itself that had signed two international conventions banning capital punishment. “The prime minister says something and everyone debates it for weeks, and they do it knowing that the death penalty won’t be reinstated. I don’t believe it will be reinstated because the person who signed the conventions against it and the one who proposes reinstating it is the same. This is so ridiculous,” she was quoted as saying at the time.