On October 28, a delegation from the Italian Senate...

On October 28, a delegation from the Italian Senate and Hands off Cain went to Uzbekistan to lobby for the resolution for a moratorium that the European Union was planning to present at the UN General Assembly. The delegation led by the Vice President of the Senate Ersilia Salvato, and composed of Sen. Francesca Scopelliti, Sen. Salvatore Senese, Ambassador Giulio Vinci Giliucci, and Sergio D'Elia, Secretary of Hands off Cain, had separate meetings with the Justice Minister, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Legislation, the Authorized Person of the Parliament for Human Rights, the Foreign Minister, and the Director of the National Center of Human Rights. Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said: "We would like to live in a society that could do without the death penalty; unfortunately, our borders and our country are assailed by Islamic extremism instigated by Afghanistan; furthermore, 75% of the drugs distributed throughout the world from Afghanistan pass through Uzbekistan. All this creates a situation unfavorable to abolition, although there is evidence of an increasing trend in this direction."