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Partito Radicale Centro Radicale - 22 novembre 1999
EU/EP/DEATH PENALTY

EP calls on Council Presidency to do everything possible to achieve vote on moratorium on death penalty during current session of United Nations General Assembly

22/11/1999 (Agence Europe)

Disappointed by the fact that the Finnish EU Council Presidency is constrained to call for postponement of the discussions opened at the United Nations General Assembly on the tabling of a Union resolution calling for a moratorium on death penalty executions (with a view to total abolition of the death sentence), the European Parliament called on all Member States and on the EU Council Presidency to take every measure possible to nonetheless achieve during this Assembly session the adoption of a moratorium on the death penalty. With the adoption during emergency debates of a resolution of the EPP, Socialist, Liberal, Greens and United Left Groups, the Parliament also invited the EU institutions to put pressure on the United States so that it does not carry out any death sentences, and calls on the EU Council to examine, during negotiations on agreements with third countries, the possibility of including the abolition of the death penalty in the human rights clause. Furthermore, the EP took a stance on three

specific cases, those of: Mumia Abu-Jamal, condemned to death in December 1982 whose execution, on 2 December, was deferred: the Court of Pennsylvania is called upon to commute the death sentence; - Larry Robinson, whose execution was postponed because of doubts over his mental health: the governor of Texas, George Bush, is invited to commute his sentence; - Joaquin José Martinez, a Spanish national condemned in Florida following a trial tainted by many irregularities: the EP calls for him to be tried again, with the guarantee of a fair trial, and that his execution be definitively suspended.

During the debate, Fodé Sylla (United Left, French) mainly called on the EU Member States to refuse the extradition of people whose "death is programmed on arrival", while Olivier Dupuis, elected (Belgian) member of the Lista Bonino, felt that the main problem is the lack of a European foreign policy. In New York, the European Union has undergone pressure from several large countries such as China, Japan and the United States, he stressed, noting that this has placed certain "friendly countries" in difficulty, such as Mexico, which had pledged to be on the EU 's side. "I ask", he said, "for the issue to be entrusted to Mr Solana alone, so that we have a constant discussion partner in the place of the half-yearly presidencies of the EU Council".

 
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