Jakarta Globe – AFP, May 01, 2015
Budapest.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban “does not plan to introduce the death
penalty,” his chief of staff Janos Lazar said Thursday, after strong EU
criticism of Orban’s call for debate on its reintroduction.
Orban
informed European Parliament president Martin Schulz by telephone that the
government would debate the issue, but “the prime minister does not plan to
introduce it in the country,” Lazar said.
Hungary
will “keep to EU laws”, he added.
The
statement came after European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker earlier
warned Orban that he faced a “fight” if he reintroduced the death penalty.
“Mr. Orban
should immediately make clear that this is not his intention and would it be
his intention, it would be a fight,” Juncker told a press conference, stressing
that the EU charter forbids the death penalty in the 28-nation bloc.
The
controversy was sparked on Tuesday when Orban pushed for a debate on bringing
back capital punishment, saying existing penalties in Hungary were too soft.
Orban’s
comments immediately sparked a sharp response after a series of spats with
Brussels over his hardline stance on human rights and civil society norms — key
values for the European Union.
Hungary
abolished capital punishment after the end of communism in 1990, fulfilling a
key condition for membership of the European Union, which it joined in 2004.
Agence France-Presse
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.