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Restoring Death Penalty among Legislative Initiatives Proposed by SNS
Thursday 14 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 14 (TASR) - Slovakia's Nationalist Party (SNS), a member of the Government coalition, has unveiled two legislative proposals to reinstitute the death penalty and strengthen the protection of the republic.
"The media may construe this initiative as pre-election gimmick but the party could care less," party chief Jan Slota said after a meeting of SNS presidium.
With the proposed reintroduction of the death penalty which requires amending the country's constitution and thus 90 votes to become law, SNS follows Europe-wide trends as relevant discussions intensify with the rising number of brutal criminal offences, party chief Slota told reporters.
As many as 64 percent Slovaks favour reintroducing the death penalty, according to Slota, who did not cite his source. The last execution was carried out in Slovakia in 1989 and capital punishment was abolished in the early 1990.
In an apparent reference to the Benes Decrees of 1948, Slota said protection of the republic to be reinforced via an amendment to the Criminal Code and is meant to clamp down on questioning signed peace treaties and Slovakia's state borders. Other areas SNS would like to see criminalised are the questioning of anti-nazi laws; and, alluding to what SNS sees as the continued threat of irredentism among Hungarian nationals living in south Slovakia, the promoting of statehood which suppresses the national rights of Slovaks.
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