COUNCIL OF EUROPE. COE WANTS RUSSIA TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY

Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis called on Russia to ratify a protocol banning the death penalty but admitted that Russia had never violated its death penalty moratorium introduced in 1996. The Council of Europe was still waiting for Russia to ratify the document, Davis told the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Meetings with senior Russian officials had repeatedly addressed this issue, he said. Unlike Japan and the United States, Russia had not carried out any executions in recent years, Davis said.