Capital punishment in Greece

In Greece the last execution took place on the 25th of August 1972. The 27 year old Vassils Lymberis was shot by firing squad for the murder of his wife, mother-in-law and two children on the island of Crete.

Capital punishment was abolished for peacetime crimes other than treason in 1993. In 1997 Greece ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty; however, a reservation was made allowing for death penalty use for the most serious crimes of a military nature committed during wartime. Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, providing for the abolition of the death penalty in peacetime, was ratified in 1998.

Greece abolished the death penalty for all crimes in 2004; in 2005, Greece ratified the Protocol No. 13 to the ECHR, concerning the abolition of the death penalty under all circumstances.

References

* [http://www.geocities.com/[e-mail]/europe.html The end of capital punishment in Europe]
* [http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr-death.htm Second Optional Protocol] to ICCPR; [http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=114&CM=8&DF=1/28/2008&CL=ENG Protocol No. 6] and [http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=187&CM=8&DF=1/28/2008&CL=ENG Protocol No. 13] to ECHR - text of the treaties, dates of signature and ratification
* [http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/abolitionist-and-retentionist-countries Abolitionist and retentionist countries] - report by Amnesty International