20/04/2010 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Strasbourg, 20.04.2010 – “I was shocked to learn that the Hamas movement has, for the first time since it took over in Gaza, applied the death penalty to two Palestinians – and I am deeply concerned at reports that it is contemplating further executions soon,” said Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD) rapporteur on the abolition of the death penalty for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), in a letter today to the Secretary General of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).
“I urge you to do your utmost to warn Hamas against taking this step, and returning to the use of this barbaric practice,” she wrote. “The death penalty, wherever it takes place, is simply wrong.”
“These executions stand in contrast to the welcome progress made by the Palestinian Authority, which has not carried out any executions since 2005, and is currently considering a draft law which would abolish the death penalty altogether, bringing it into line with a fundamental principle of the Council of Europe,” wrote the rapporteur.
Mrs Wohlwend said that a closer association between the PLC and the Assembly, such as the new Partner for Democracy status, depended on the PLC doing all in its power to ensure that further executions did not take place in Gaza.