ITALIA. MASTELLA WILL PROPOSE MORATORIUM TO EU MINISTERS

January 3, 2007: Justice Minister Clemente Mastella wants to bring the important issue of the death penalty to the attention of the European Union. A high level source from the Justice Ministry says Mastella will use the next meeting of the European Ministry of Justice on the 15 and 16 in Dresdon to do so. ‘I’ve seen that France already agrees to a moratorium, and the fact that there is no death penalty in the other EU countries makes it easier to follow a shared objective,’ the Justice Minister declared. He is confident that this will allow a “demonstration of European cohesion, one that doesn’t exist in other circumstances.” “I hope that Great Britain is also in agreement” on the moratorium. Mastello added that in the past few days he had invited Marco Panella to stop his hunger and thirst strike. Panella began the strike to pressure the Italian Government to make the resolution for the suspension of the death penalty the order of the day at the UN General Assembly. (Sources: ANSA, 3/01/2007)