Mr Patten answered on behalf of the Commission a parliamentary...

Mr Patten answered on behalf of the Commission a parliamentary question written on the execution of Mr Yoshiteru Hamada and Mr Tatsuya Haruta. He said that the Commission participated in an Union Troika démarche to Minister of Justice Moriyama on 4 October 2002 expressing deep regret at the executions and the recent imposition of further death sentences and setting out the basis for the Union's opposition to he application of the death penalty. In its opposition to the death penalty the Union does not distinguish between countries which are democracies and those which are not: the goal is universal abolition.