European Union for­eign min­is­ters have urged Iraq’s inter­im gov­ern­ment not to rein­state cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as it con­tin­ues to devel­op the nation’s jus­tice sys­tem. ​“The European Union recon­firms its oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty in all cas­es,” the min­is­ters said in a draft state­ment to Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari. ​“The mes­sage has been very clear … We have this pol­i­cy, and we will main­tain this pol­i­cy,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot at a news con­fer­ence with Zebari. The European Union has a long-stand­ing pol­i­cy against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and all 25 mem­ber nations have aban­doned the prac­tice. Although the death penal­ty was sus­pend­ed in Iraq dur­ing the U.S.-led occu­pa­tion, some senior-lev­el Iraqi politi­cians have pub­licly stat­ed that they intend to rein­state the death penal­ty for cer­tain crimes now that con­trol of the gov­ern­ment has been giv­en back to the Iraqi peo­ple. The dis­cus­sion about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment took place as Zebari, him­self an oppo­nent of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, met with European Union lead­ers to dis­cuss EU sup­port for rebuild­ing efforts in Iraq. He not­ed that the nation is fac­ing an ever-dete­ri­o­rat­ing secu­ri­ty sit­u­a­tion and that fund­ing from the EU is essen­tial to orga­niz­ing upcom­ing elec­tions. (Reuters, July 12, 2004) See International Death Penalty.

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