Hands Off Cain
Greece

Greece abolished the death penalty as a punishment applicable to offences defined in the Greek Penal Code in 1993.

Greece abolished the death penalty as a punishment applicable to offences defined in the Greek Penal Code in 1993.

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Greece abolished the death penalty as a punishment applicable to offences defined in the Greek Penal Code in 1993. However, the death penalty continued to be provided for a number of offences under the Greek Military Penal Code.
In 1997 a new Military Penal Code was introduced which restricted the death penalty to the most serious crimes in time of war. The same year, when ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, Greece made a reservation allowing for "application of the death penalty in time of war pursuant to a conviction for a most serious crime of a military nature committed during wartime".
In January 2001 the Greek Parliament approved a constitutional amendment prohibiting the death penalty in peacetime, and in April 2001 a revised Constitution was adopted, including this amendment, which states: "The death penalty may not be imposed, except in cases which are prescribed by law for felonies which are committed in time of war and are connected with it".
On February 1, 2005, Ambassador Constantin Yerocostopulos, Permanent Representative of Greece to the Council of Europe, transmitted to Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the instruments of ratification of the Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances (entry into force: 01.06.2005).
The last execution in Greece was carried out in 1972.
On December 17, 2018, as in previous years, Greece co-sponsored and voted in favour of the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.