The death penalty was foreseen in Greek law since the time of the Greek Revolution and the founding of the Greek state. Already in the “Criminal Criminal” of 1823, the first Greek criminal legislation, many of the projected offenses there was a penalty of death. Similarly, and after the arrival of Otto in Greece, the death penalty was foreseen in the 1834 criminal law, the basic criminal law of the Greek state from its establishment until 1950, while the first guerrilla for the execution of death sentences was introduced in Greece. A little limit to the imposition of the death penalty came with the Constitution of 1864, which abolished this sentence on civil crimes, unless it was “complex civil crimes”, that is, crimes which, while aiming to overthrow the state, are infest, and at the same time offend, and at the same time, or material disasters. Similar provision has since been included in all later Greek constitutions until 1975.
At the same time, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, under the influence of ideas that are already in the Enlightenment, and in particular the teaching of Beccaria, and then under the influence of the newest “schools” of criminal law, the questioning of the moral justification and the feasibility of enforcement began. Despite this tendency, in the Greek Criminal Code of 1950, one of the lightest criminal codes of his time, the death penalty was maintained. After all, one could not expect the abolition of the death penalty in Greece in 1950, when the experiences of the civil war were still fresh.
However, in Greece, those voices were not lacking against the death penalty and supported its abolition. It is worth mentioning here by Constantine Despotopoulos, who, since the 1950s, has ambassador that the death condemnation and execution of it reject the sacredness and the inviolable value of human life. The death penalty, however, continued to be enforced and executed in the 1950s and 1960s, although the frequency of its enforcement began to decline, while the last execution in Greece took place in 1972.
The condemnation of coup d’etat
The issue of conservation or not of the death penalty was again raised in the Transition, during the preparatory work for the drafting of the new Constitution in 1975. And then, parliament was hesitant to take the step towards its abolition and to include a relevant provision in the Constitution. This was also the desire not to link the abolition of the death penalty to the fate of the seven -year dictatorship coup. Indeed, the government majority did not even accept the proposal of the opposition parties to expand the ban on the death penalty in complex civil crimes. Consequently, the death penalty remained unchanged in the 1975 Constitution.
Although in the 1975 Constitution, Parliament hesitated to include the abolition of the death penalty throughout the post -political period, a death penalty in Greece was never executed.
But while at the legal level things did not change, it did not happen in practice. A few days after the new Constitution was adopted, on August 23, 1975, the Pentamelis Court of Appeal of Athens sentenced the three main leaders of the dictatorship to the death penalty. But just two days later, the Council of Ministers decided that these penalties were not going to be executed, but would be transferred to life imprisonment. This decision, which at that time encountered fierce criticism in many ways, but today appears as justified, inaugurated the period of de facto abolition of the death penalty: Throughout the post -political period, a death penalty in Greece was never executed. At the same time, the Greek legal science, following the international trends of the time, advocated, with few exceptions, in favor of its abolition.
The 6th ECHR Protocol
After all, the abolition of the death penalty in Greece appeared to come abroad, with the signing of the 6th European Convention on Human Rights in 1983. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which dates back to 1950, not only did not prohibit the death of its death. In the meantime, the pan -European perceptions had changed and many states had already banned the death penalty. This new reality was also imprinted on the 6th ECHR Protocol which, in its preamble, found “that developments in many member states of the Council of Europe express a general tendency in favor of the abolition of the death penalty”. Thus, Article 1 of the 6th Protocol provided for the following: ‘The sentence of death is abolished. No one can be sentenced to such a penalty, nor executed. ” However, he was conducted in Art. 2 of the Protocol, the ability of a state to provide in its legislation the death penalty for acts committed in war or warlords of war. Greece signed this protocol on May 2, 1983, just days after it was opened for signature, when justice was George-Alexandros Magakis. This was the first step in lawfully abolishing the death penalty in our country.
The step, however, was left without continuity. The 6th protocol was signed, but was not ratified. And as with all international conventions, they must be ratified by law, which did not happen at that time. Therefore, the death penalty has continued to be foreseen in our justice.
Definitive absolute ban 21 years after
It took ten years for the death of the death sentence in Greece to be abolished. This was done by the provision of article 33 (1) of Law 2172/1993, when the Minister of Justice was George Kouvelakis. This historical provision was followed by: “The sentence of death is abolished. Where the provisions in force are provided for a certain criminal act exclusively the sentence of death, it is understood that the sentence of life imprisonment is threatened. If the sentence of death is divorced with another sentence, it is understood that only the latter is threatened. ” A few months later, by a new provision of law, Article 50 of the Criminal Code was also explicitly abolished, referring to the death penalty and how it was executed.
However, the above removal provisions did not have increased formal power, such as the Constitution or international conventions, and did not prevent the common legislator from adopting the death penalty again. Indeed, in 1995, with the adoption of the new Military Criminal Code (CPC), the death penalty was again foreseen, of course, to a much smaller extent than it was foreseen in the 1941 SPK, “only for crimes performed during the war and” of her. “
Prohibition with no exceptions
But it was now time to ratify the international conventional texts that prohibit the imposition of the death penalty. In 1997, the International Pact for Individual and Political Rights (DSFP) was ratified, as well as the second optional protocol in the USSR, which provides that no person “will be executed”, while not adopting the obligation of the Contracting States to abolish the death penalty. In relation to this arrangement, Greece, during the ratification of the above protocol, expressed reservations about the implementation of the death penalty in accordance with the provisions of the CPC, “following a conviction for a military crime of the utmost importance held in times of war”. In this way, for the first time the death penalty was banned by law of increased formal power, except in cases of serious military crimes in times of war.
In 1998, the ratification of the 6th ECHR protocol on April 28, 1983. Thus, the Meteor Step, which began in 1983, with the signature of this protocol, was completed 15 years later. We remind you that the 6th Protocol introduces, and this, the exception for acts committed in times of war or war risk.
After all, and our constitutional legislator, in the 2001 revision, prohibited the death penalty, with the exception of “crimes that are held in times of war and related to it”.
Finally, in 2004, the 13th Protocol of the ECHR on May 3, 2002 was ratified, which completely abolished the death penalty, not allowing any derogation in the event of a war or other public risk that threatens the life of the nation. Thus the course for the abolition of the death penalty in our country, which began cowardly in 1983, was completed after 21 years, with the complete elimination of the death penalty of our justice. Indeed, in 2009 the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union also entered into force, which also provides that no one can be sentenced to the death penalty or executed. Today, then, the death penalty is no longer provided in the Greek legal order, and its re -establishment by law is prohibited.
*Mr. Alexandros Dimakis is an assistant professor at the Law School of the University of Athens.
*Curated by: Evanthis Hatzivasiliou
