The organization is calling on the Turkish Parliament to stop the execution of Abdullah calan, as well as of any other person under sentence of death, and reiterates its appeal for total abolition of the death penalty in Turkey. Turkey has already taken first steps towards abolishing the death penalty. In the bill setting out a new penal code, prepared by a parliamentary commission in 1996-1997, the death penalty was eliminated. Background Under Turkish law, death sentences upheld by the Appeal Court are submitted to the Judicial Commission of the Parliament which may stop the procedures de facto by not reviewing the case. If the Commission proceeds, it prepares a draft law recommending or not the execution, and submits it to the general assembly of the parliament.
Parliamentary approval requires a simple majority.
The State President has the power to commute or lift death sentences on grounds of age, disability or ill-health. Turkey, a member of the Council of Europe and party to the European Convention on Human Rights, is one of the few remaining European states not to have abolished the death penalty. When Abdullah calan was sentenced to death on 29 June 1999, European governments and intergovernmental organizations warned Turkey that a resumption of executions might isolate the country in Europe. There are also signs that public opinion leaders in Turkey favour a continued moratorium. The last executions in Turkey took place in October 1984 and provoked an international outcry.