Bundestag [lower house] President Wolfgang Thierse...

Bundestag [lower house] President Wolfgang Thierse (Social Democratic Party of Germany) warned against ignoring human rights standards in prosecuting terrorists.
The right to life is the most basic right of all. It cannot be forfeited, Thierse said at a conference of the parliament presidents of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament in Zagreb.
One must tell this also to those who, in the wake of the "cowardly terrorist attack" of 11 September, are now once again increasingly demanding the death penalty for terrorists. Crimes must be prosecuted with determination but not with "thoughts of blind revenge."
Thierse pointed out that in 2000 Europe for the first time became a continent without the death penalty. It is to the credit of the Council of Europe that nowadays 800m Europeans live in a "zone that is free of the death penalty," he stressed.