The news agency Agencia Brasil web site reported that...

The news agency Agencia Brasil web site reported that Fidel Castro's government had announced an end to executions by firing squad in Cuba. The decision to get rid of what was known as "the wall", where condemned prisoners were shot by firing squad, reportedly came in response to complaints by the international community and the Catholic Church about the practice. A commission was created in the country to study the death penalty, which could bring its abolishment in the future. The moves followed the three executions in April 2003 of men accused of attempting to hijack a boat to escape the island. On the day they were executed the mother of one of them committed suicide in a gesture of desperation. According to a Cuban Baptist minister, Raul Soares, a member of Congress and supporter of the Castro government, there was public feeling was in favour of ending the death penalty.