European Parliament
Kristiina Ojuland,
author.
– Mr President, one knows a true friend by unconditional honesty; I hope to be a friend of the Land of the Rising Sun. However, I would call on Tokyo not to end the
de facto
moratorium on the death penalty. The death penalty assumes that the convict is not able to reform himself and furthermore, once carried out, it cannot be appealed against if misapplied. Even a remote chance of a mistake does not allow it to be applied in a contemporary democratic country that respects human rights. We must be consistent in our policies in the European Union and apply the same standards to all countries, from Belarus to Japan and from China to the USA.

