'Unacceptable' for Turkey to reintroduce death penalty

  • 18/07/2016
Turkish supporters silhouetted against a screen showing President Tayyip Erdogan during a pro-govt demonstration (Reuters)
Turkish supporters silhouetted against a screen showing President Tayyip Erdogan during a pro-govt demonstration (Reuters)

It would be unacceptable for Turkey to reintroduce the death penalty in response to an attempted coup, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz says.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday after the failed coup attempt there could be no delay in using capital punishment, which Turkey abolished in 2004, and the government would discuss it with opposition parties.

"The introduction of the death penalty would of course be absolutely unacceptable," Kurz said in an interview with Austrian newspaper Kurier.

"There must be no arbitrary purges, no criminal sanctions outside the framework of the rule of law and the justice system."

A senior security official says Turkish security forces are still searching for some of the soldiers involved in a failed coup attempt and their weapons in various cities and rural areas.

Turkey's military command has been dealt "a heavy blow in terms of organisation" by the attempted coup, but is still functioning in co-ordination with the intelligence agency, police and the government, the official said.

Some high-ranking military officials involved in the coup attempt have fled abroad, the official also said.

But the swift rounding up of judges and others after a failed coup in Turkey indicated the government had prepared a list beforehand, the EU commissioner dealing with Turkey's membership bid, Johannes Hahn, says.

Following the failed coup attempt on Saturday, Turkish authorities on Sunday rounded up nearly 3000 suspected military plotters, ranging from top commanders to foot soldiers, and the same number of judges and prosecutors.

"It looks at least as if something has been prepared. The lists are available, which indicates it was prepared and to be used at a certain stage," Hahn said.

"I'm very concerned. It is exactly what we feared."

Reuters