MidnightCall Magazine
In this issue:
- Before the Last Flood — By Norbert Lieth
- Gaza Flotilla: Aggression or Self-Defense? — By Arno Froese
- Far East AsiaTrendsToday – Part III:Geo-prophecy or Geopolitics? — By Wilfred Hahn
News From Israel MagazineIn this issue:
- The Myth of the Al-Aqsa Mosque: Part 1 — By Herbert Novitsky
- ON THE HORIZON:
- Obama Honors Jewish Heritage Month
- Building an Electronic Human Brain
- ‘Iran Critics Must Get Rid of Nukes,’ Says Turkish PM
- Israel Joins Prestigious OECD Club
- Israel Accepted after Unanimous Vote
- Spy Satellite Successfully Launched
Europe’s Last Nation to Execute People
Belarus is the last country in Europe and from the former Soviet Union that still carries out executions, after Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan abolished capital punishment last year, Amnesty International writes in its yearly report on the death penalty.
At least four people were executed and another sentenced to death in 2008, the study estimates. The human rights group is only able to offer an estimate as all information on the death penalty in Belarus is kept secret.
The report came out just days after the European Union decided to include Belarus in a new policy towards its eastern neighbors, the European Partnership. The policy aims to offer visa-free travel and a free-trade area, as well as promotion of human rights and good governance.
In March 2006, following the presidential elections, the head of the state security services (KGB) threatened potential demonstrators with the death penalty, saying: “The actions of people who come to the square [to demonstrate] will be assessed as terrorism, which is punished according to various articles with eight years’ imprisonment to the death penalty.”
Some positive steps have been made, for instance, a Constitutional Court decision in 2004 finding that death penalty was in conflict with the constitution and could be abolished.
“However, despite these positive moves and pressure from international organizations, the Belarussian authorities have not yet demonstrated any political will to initiate public debate on the topic or to make the necessary legislative changes,” the report concludes.
Russian death penalty still on the books
The Russian Federation has maintained a moratorium on executions and death sentences for more than 10 years, but still has yet to actually abolish the death penalty in law, Amnesty International writes.
In Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, retained the death penalty when they gained independence in 1991. But by September 2008, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan had abolished the death penalty in law. Tajikistan meanwhile has moratorium on executions and death sentences.
More people were executed in Asia than in any other part of the world in 2008. China carried out more executions than the rest of the world put together, amounting to at least 1,718.
Iran, Saudi Arabia, the US and Pakistan are next on the list, but with far fewer executions. Together, these five countries carried out 93 percent of all executions carried out in 2008.
http://www.euobserver.com, 24 March 2009
Abolishing capital punishment is a requirement for applicants for membership in the European Union. It seems reasonable to expect that Belarus and later Russia will abolish capital punishment.
What seems contradictory is the fact that capital punishment should, but does not deter capital crime. European member countries who have abolished capital punishment show a significant lower crime rate than other nations with capital punishment.
Regardless of these developments, there is an ultimate capital punishment to be implemented, and that is recorded in Revelation 13:15: “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”