ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he would approve a possible reinstatement of the death penalty if parliament sends him a draft law on the issue, according to NTV broadcaster.
Turkey’s justice minister said over the weekend that Turkey would consider reversing the status of the death penalty, abolished in 2004, after the president raised the issue of those responsible for forest fires.
His nationalist ally Devlet Bahceli backed the idea and said the punishment should extend to terrorism, rape and murder of women.
“If necessary, this issue should be put back on the agenda and debated. We should see what happens to this debate,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“I have said it before, if Parliament takes such a decision as a result of the work of our Ministry of Justice, I will approve this decision,” he added.
(Reportage Tuvan Gumrukcu; French version Alizée Degorce, edited by Kate Entringer)
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