ARMENIA ABOLISHES DEATH PENALTY

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia remained faithful to its commitments despite the fact that the issue of abolishment of the death penalty was being connected with specific problems which were not solved easily. The terrorist act in the parliament of the country organized in October 1999 made the issue of abolishment of the death penalty a subject of serious disputes. The significant part of the Armenian society turned to be very sensible to the arguments of the radical opposition insisting to apply a special approach to this case which led to the destabilization of the situation in the country. The issue was more politicized because as a result of this crime the father and the brother of the leaders of ''Justice'' oppositional block were killed. As a concession, the authorities adopted in July this year the law ''On bringing into force of the Criminal Code'' which allowed to apply the death penalty in the case with October 27. However, it is known that the 6th protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights does not allow any exceptions. In fact, the adopted law contradicts to the international treaty signed by Armenia. The Parliament Assembly of the Council of Europe made it understand that it would not allow any deviations from the protocol. At the same time the PACE did not insist on the terms given to Yerevan for fulfillment of all the commitments postponing the discussion of the issue from the summer session to autumn. The issue was to be finally decided at the voting in the parliament. And literally on the eve of the discussion of the issue at the Parliament session the President signed a decree about abolishment of the death penalty and replacing it with life imprisonment. ''I am very satisfied that the President made this extremely important step. This decision proves that Armenia will remain true to its commitments and that it has a will of full integration with the European family,'' the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Walter Swimmer said in this connection.
From the eight factions and deputy groups of the National Assembly only the ''Justice'' block was against the abolishment of the death penalty. Thus, Armenia fulfilled one of its main commitments undertaken while becoming member of the Council of Europe. The PACE leadership does not hide its satisfaction. ''This important step makes the full abolishment of the death penalty in Europe more realistic, and this is one of the priorities of our organization. We encourage the Armenian authorities to continue fulfilling the commitments undertaken,'' the message of the Chairman of PACE Walter Scwimmer addressed to the Parliament Speaker of Armenia reads.