Abkhazia introduces death penalty for drug dealing

Abkhazia has passed a law reintroducing the death penalty for drug dealing.

The law also provides for life-imprisonment, and will come into force on 1 January 2020.

• Not my problem – drug addiction in Azerbaijan

• The death penalty – a Soviet inheritance?

Abkhazia imposed a moratorium on the death penalty back in 1993. Currently, there are only three convicts serving life sentences in Abkhazia.

The public has responded ambiguously to the news, with roughly half the public supportive of the idea and half against it.

Comments from social media:  

“I would be surprised at this decision had our legislators not banned abortions several years ago. After the ban, they are staying the course for Saudi Arabia.”

“Our children are killed every day, and they earn on their lives. Maybe if at least two drug dealers are deprived of their own, someone will come to their senses and be frightened?”

In the post-Soviet space, the death penalty is only allowed by law in Belarus. In other places, it has either been abolished or a moratorium imposed on it.

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