Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 14: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will provide details of any expression by Ireland or the EU in relation to the death sentence that was recently announced in relation to Tariq Aziz [43139/10]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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On 26 October, the Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced to death five representatives of the former regime, of which Iraq's former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz is perhaps the best known. I have consistently and clearly set out the Government's firm opposition to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances. Ireland was supportive of a prompt expression by the EU of its opposition to these planned executions. On 11 November 2010, the EU (Denmark as EU local Presidency in Iraq) met the Iraqi Minister for Human Rights, Mrs Wijdan Mikail Salim, to express its concern at the decision of the High Tribunal and its concern at the executions carried out in Iraq since the end of the de facto moratorium. The EU called on Iraq to halt these planned executions, convert their sentences, and to resume the de facto suspension of the death penalty pending its legal abolition.

In expressing its grave concern at these planned executions, the European Union fully acknowledged the serious nature of the crimes involved, and expressed its sincere sympathies to the surviving family and friends of the victims. The EU also pointed out that it repeatedly condemned the systematic, widespread and extremely grave violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law committed by Saddam Hussein and the members of his regime. However, the European Union stated that it does not believe the atrocities under Saddam Hussein will be mitigated by the death of Tariq Aziz and his co-condemned.

It is in the interests of justice and reconciliation in Iraq that the Iraqi authorities take the step of ending capital punishment. These sentences represent a potentially negative development at a time when, in spite of serious challenges, Iraq is making progress in the journey to becoming a stable democracy. On the same day as the EU's meeting with Mrs Salim, Iraq's newly convened parliament appointed a Sunni Arab member of the opposition al-Iraqiyya coalition as Speaker under the deal which also sees outgoing President Talabani and Prime Minister Maliki re-appointed to their positions. I firmly believe that the death sentences are at odds with much-needed national reconciliation in Iraq epitomised by the new power-sharing deal, and contrasts with the growing number of States supporting the resolutions on the moratorium on the use of the death penalty, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 18 December 2007 and 18 December 2008.

Ireland, together with its EU partners, remains firmly opposed to the use of capital punishment under all circumstances, seeking a global moratorium on the death penalty as a first step. The EU considers capital punishment to be cruel and inhuman, failing to provide deterrence to criminal behaviour, and representing an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity.