Poland’s president Lech Kaczynski

POLAND. PRESIDENTIAL CHANCELLERY WRITES TO COUNCIL OF EUROPE ON DEATH PENALTY

August 9, 2006: Undersecretary of State at the Presidential Chancellery Andrzej Krawczyk has written to Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly head Rene van der Linden that President Lech Kaczynski had not presented any initiative of reintroducing the death penalty in Poland.
According to Secretary of State at the Presidential Chancellery Maciej Lopinski, the letter sent on August 8 was a reply to a last week's appeal by the Council of Europe head for "withdrawing the President's proposal to restore the death penalty". "I would like to inform that the Polish President submitted no motion to reinstate the death penalty. In this case your postulate for the withdrawal of the President's proposal is groundless," Krawczyk wrote. Van der Linden's appeal followed a 28 July radio interview by Kaczynski who declared he had always supported the death penalty. According to the president, the lack of such punishment "gave criminals an immeasurable advantage over their victims".
"This should be discussed in Europe. I think that with time Europe will change its mind on this. European civilization has paths leading us into the future, but it also has blind alleys, and this is one," Kaczynski said in the interview. (Sources: Apcom, 09/08/2006)