Finland opposes capital punishment always and in all circumstances

MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
http://formin.finland.fi/english

Press Release 18/2015
19 January 2015

Finland opposes capital punishment always and in all circumstances

According to local media in Afghanistan, the person accused of killing Finnish aid workers in Afghanistan has been sentenced to death. The authorities have not confirmed the information.

Finland, as does the whole European Union, opposes capital punishment always and in all circumstances. This stand does not depend on the State handing down the sentence or the citizenship of the person sentenced.

Capital punishment is a cruel, inhuman and irreversible punishment. Miscarriage of justice can lead to the irreversible loss of human life. Capital punishment violates the right to life and is prohibited under the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 2 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights provides that no one shall be condemned to the death penalty, or executed.

Killing the aid workers was a most reprehensible and regrettable, but also a highly unusual, crime against Finns. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has today been in contact with the families of the slain Finnish aid workers.

Additional information: Director Nina Nordström, Unit for Human Rights Policy, tel. +358 295 350 104; Desk Officer (Afghanistan) Olli Ruohomäki, Unit for South Asia, tel. +358 40 752 4715