Can the death penalty be imposed in the European Union in case of riots and uprisings? No, that's not true: The abolition of the death penalty is a prerequisite for EU membership. A statement published on July 8, 2020, reaffirms the EU's "strong and unequivocal opposition to the use of the death penalty at all times and under all circumstances. Capital punishment violates the inalienable right to life and is incompatible with human dignity," it states.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok by @learose811 on September 3, 2023. It opened:
The death penalty in case of riots or uprisings is contemplated by EU law!! The death penalty has been abolished in all EU member states. Nowadays it is also taboo for serious criminals such as murderers, terrorists, rapists and paedophiles. However, few people know that there are several exceptions, for Brussels, that allow state authorities to kill people. When they rebel against the authorities, EU laws also legitimise the use of extreme force, because globalists are doing everything to secure their power.
(Translation from Czech to English by Lead Stories staff).
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Sep 11 22:01:27 2023 UTC)
The European Union strongly opposes the death penalty in all circumstances. The EU has also insisted that bilateral extradition treaties with non-EU countries automatically preclude the use of the death penalty in all cases of extradited prisoners from EU member states.
In 1983, the Council of Europe adopted the first legally binding instrument providing for the unconditional abolition of the death penalty in peacetime: Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This text is currently ratified by all 46 member states. In 2002, the Council of Europe adopted Protocol No. 13 to the ECHR concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances, in other words also in time of war or of imminent threat of war. Reservations to and derogations from the Protocol are not possible.
Belarus is the only state in Europe and Central Asia which still uses the death penalty. The death penalty is usually applied in Belarus for aggravated murder but is also a possible punishment for acts of terrorism that cause loss of life.
In March 2023, Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president, signed a bill allowing the execution of officials and military personnel for harming national security.
The last execution in Belarus took place on July 16, 2022. Viktar Skrundzik was executed for murdering several senior citizens and for the attempted murder of an 85-year-old woman.
While capital punishment (death penalty) has a legal basis in Russian law, the Kremlin imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in August 1996 as a condition for membership in the Council of Europe. Although the death penalty was abolished de facto, it still remains part of the Penal Code.
In 2022, most known executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the USA - in that order. According to Amnesty International, the exact number of executions happening in China is not certain as this data is classified as a state secret. The global figure of at least 883 executions in 2022 excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out there.
More information on the death penalty in different countries can be found here.
