A recent poll indicated more than 80 percent of Lithuanians support the death penalty. But earlier this month Lithuania's highest court put pressure on parliament to change the law when it declared the death penalty unconstitutional, saying it violated provisions against cruelty and torture. Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus has also lobbied for the death penalty to be scrapped. Life imprisonment will now be the maximum sentence a Lithuania court can hand down. Estonia abolished its death penalty earlier this year.
Legislation banning capital punishment is also pending in Latvia.
Estonian President Lennart Meri has been named the European of the Year by the respected French weekly La Vie. European Union leader Jacques Delors, who chaired the weekly's selection committee, said Meri was being recognized for his role in restoring Estonian independence and in bringing the country back into the European fold. Earlier recipients of La Vie's award include former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and UN Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson. President Meri's popularity in Estonia has soared since he first took office in 1992. Initially, Meri was seen as too eccentric, even quirky, but has since come to be regarded as one of the most scholarly and effective statement in the region.