23 October 2009 :

regarding today’s reply by Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Luigi Scotti to the urgent parliamentary question on Vasil Yuzepchuk’s imminent execution in Belarus, Radical Parliamentarian and Hands Off Cain treasurer Elisabetta Zamparutti said:
“The Italian government said today that their commitment against the death penalty in Belarus can be seen in their support of both a démarche by the European Union and the letter being sent by the Swedish Presidency of the EU to Minsk. However, this does not seem much for a country that promoted the campaign for the universal moratorium on capital punishment and is proposing to be Lukashenko’s advocate in Europe. There is no bilateral initiative on the death penalty and, even in the European ambit, Italy is only carrying an initiative started by others. The case of Vasil Yuzepchuk could have been a test of the change that Minsk says it wants to carry out on human rights and democracy. However, at this point, it has become the test of the inconsistency of the Italian Government in the promotion of human rights around the world and, in particular, in the last remaining dictatorship in Europe.”