Following the rejection of the petition to the Constitutional Court in Taiwan which would have saved 40 prisoners on death row, Markus Löning, Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office, issued the following statement today (31 May):

“I am greatly concerned by the confirmation of the death sentences. From 2005 to 2010 Taiwan had a moratorium on the death penalty. Taiwan was a beacon of human rights and democracy for the entire region. I call upon those responsible not to carry out the sentences but to change them to prison terms.”