Premeditated murder and plots against the security of the State are capital crimes.

Premeditated murder and plots against the security of the State are capital crimes.
Thirteen people were condemned to death in December 1986, for their part in a failed coup d’état in September 1986. Their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment by President Gnassingbe Eyadéma in October 1987.
President Eyadema came to power in 1967 following a military coup. He suspended the constitution and dissolved all political parties.
In 1991, political parties were again made legal and multiparty elections were promised. A democratic constitution was adopted in 1992. The transition faltered, however, as soldiers and secret police harassed, attacked, or killed opposition supporters. Eyadema won fraudulent elections in 1993 and 1998.
Africa's longest-serving leader, he won another five-year term as president in elections held in June 2003 from which his main rival was barred from competing, and the electoral code was amended to favour Eyadema's candidacy. The last execution in Togo took place in 1978.