Puneet Varma (Editor)

Capital punishment in the Netherlands

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Capital punishment ("doodstraf" in Dutch) in the Netherlands was first abolished in 1870, though only in criminal law, by the Dutch justice minister Franciscus Gerardus Reinierdus Hubertus van Lilaar. Following the abolition of the death penalty, life imprisonment was made an official punishment in 1878.

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Between 1945 and 1952 several war criminals from World War II were sentenced to death by the Bijzonder Gerechtshof. The last persons to be executed were Andries Jan Pieters and Artur Albrecht in March 1952.

In military law, however, capital punishment remained a legal option until 1983, when it was explicitly forbidden in the Constitution for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 1991, all references to the death penalty were removed from Dutch law.

Today the Netherlands operates a clear policy against capital punishment, such as not participating in extradition if the suspect has even the slightest chance of receiving the death penalty.

Articles

  • Article 114 of the Constitution Law (Dutch: Grondwet) prohibits sentencing someone to death. This means that as a result, the death penalty does not exist in the Netherlands. It also means that the death penalty cannot be added to future or existing law articles. That would conflict with the Dutch Constitution Law.
  • Death Penalty in the Netherlands nowadays

    There are a few parties in the Netherlands nowadays that support bringing the death penalty back. they are the Reformed Political Party that is an Christian right party.

    References

    Capital punishment in the Netherlands Wikipedia