07/04/2010 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), PACE rapporteur for the abolition of the death penalty, strongly protested against the execution in China for drug smuggling of Japanese national Mitsunobu Akana.
"The execution in of this Japanese citizen, and the impending execution of several others, is an outrage. Reportedly, the accused Japanese did not even have a qualified interpreter when he was interrogated and his argument that he only played a subordinate role in the offence was not accepted at all. I call upon the Government of Japan, an observer state with the Council of Europe, which has regrettably still not abolished capital punishment at home, to urge the Chinese authorities to stop any further executions of its citizens", Mrs Wohlwend said.