Albanian President Rexhep Meidani said that with the...

Albanian President Rexhep Meidani said that with the new constitution the chapter on capital punishment in Albania was closed. He was addressing the conference on the "Abrogation of the death sentence in Albania," which began proceedings at the Albanian Assembly Presidency on March 31. Meidani stressed that in the process of integration in the international community, the removal of the death sentence will help the parameters of development of Albanian society and institutions to reach optimal levels. Hailing the decision of the Constitutional Court to scrap the death sentence, the President stressed that numerous abolitionists all over the world were asking the Albanian state to sign and ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to remove any reference to the death sentence from the Albanian Criminal Code.