On July 1, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Gabriele...

On July 1, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Gabriele Gatti instructed San Marino's permanent representative at the Council of Europe, Guido Ceccoli, "to communicate to the General Secretariat and to the Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe the Government of the Republic of San Marino's deep concern about the outcome of the trial of the Kurd leader Ocalan, who has been given a death sentence. The Republic of San Marino - Gatti affirmed -, while not entering into the merits of the trial nor the manner in which it was conducted, asks the Council of Europe, in accordance with the EU's traditional position against the retention and application of the death penalty, to intervene with the Turkish authorities in order that Ocalan's death sentence might not carried out and Turkey, a member of the Council of Europe, might remain faithful to the laudable practice, consolidated over many years, of not applying the death penalty."