Having learnt that the Indonesian authorities intended...

Having learnt that the Indonesian authorities intended to carry out an execution and that the execution was imminent, the Dutch EU Presidency noted in a declaration that, by so doing, Indonesia would be putting an end to the de facto moratorium on the death penalty. The Presidency urged the Indonesian government to go back on its decision and to maintain its de facto moratorium, and hoped even that Indonesia would envisage extending the scope of the moratorium to include abolition of capital punishment in its national law. The Dutch Presidency recalled that the EU was strongly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances and was strongly committed to universal abolition of capital punishment. The death penalty had no deterrent effect and made judiciary errors irreversible, which was why it had been abolished in all EU countries, the declaration recalled, also noting that there was in the world a "growing tendency toward abolishing the death penalty". Thus, capital punishment had already been abolished by law or de facto in 118 countries or territories but remained in 78 countries.