House committees back abolition of death penalty

THE HOUSE Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committees yesterday approved a bill formally abolishing the death penalty in Cyprus.

The Cabinet tabled the bill last November to bring Cyprus’ capital punishment laws in line with those of the European Union.

Once the bill is approved by the House, only those found guilty of treason during wartime will face the death penalty. This exception is allowed in EU law, under the sixth protocol of the European Convention on the protection of human rights.

As the law currently stands, the death penalty can still be imposed for high treason and piracy.

Arguing for the abolition of the death penalty, state attorney Eliana Yiorkadji-Nicolaou noted that the death penalty’s abolition was on the “A- list of requirements before (EU) accession” for Cyprus.

Legal affairs committee president Panayiotis Demetriou of Disy added that a change in the law was “our international obligation.”

Diko deputy Marios Matsakis agreed with abolition, but said that the decision should be made independently of what Europe expects from Cyprus.

Further arguments for the abolition of capital punishment came from Akel’s Yiannakis Agapiou, who reminded the Committees that it had only once been implemented since the declaration of the Cyprus Republic. The one and only execution took place when a man was hung for murder in 1963.

Disy’s Rikos Erotocritou noted that in America, states that continued to use the death penalty had rates of serious crime as high or higher than their non-practising counterparts.

Persuasive arguments proved to be unnecessary, as the Committees unanimously decided to recommend that the bill be forwarded for adoption by the Plenum. No date has yet been set for the ball to pass before the House.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.