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Historical punishment by death
Capital punishment
for
murder
was abolished in
Cyprus
on 15 December 1983. It was abolished for all crimes on 19 April 2002. The death penalty was replaced with
life imprisonment
. Cyprus is a signatory to the
second optional protocol
of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
, which provides for full abolition of capital punishment. Cyprus initially had a reservation on the second protocol, allowing execution for grave crimes in times of war, but subsequently withdrew this reservation. The
Constitution of Cyprus
was amended in 2016 to eliminate all forms of capital punishment.
[1]
[2]
The last three executions in Cyprus were carried out on the same day, 13 June 1962.
[2]
These executions were the first carried out since Cyprus gained independence in 1960
[3]
and therefore remain the only ones the country has ever carried out. Three men, Hambis Zacharia, Michael Hiletikos and Lazaris Demetriou, were hanged for murder at the
Central Jail of Nicosia
,
[4]
the country's only prison.
Zacharia had killed a man in a
Limassol
vineyard with an axe in September 1958. Hiletikos and Demetriou were convicted of shooting a man outside a Limassol night-club in 1961. Hiletikos had fled to Britain, but was extradited back to Cyprus in November 1961.
[5]
The British executioners
Harry Allen
and John Underhill travelled to Cyprus to carry out the hangings.
[6]
Prior to independence, nine men had been hanged in 1956 and 1957 by the British for acts committed as members of
EOKA
. The Central Jail of Nicosia still functions as a prison, but the area where executions were carried out is now a museum.
The unrecognised state of the
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
retains the death penalty in limited circumstances. Article 15 of the state's constitution declares that capital punishment can be imposed in cases of treason during wartime, acts of terrorism and
piracy
jure gentium
, and for repeated murders. Even in these instances, no execution of capital punishment can be carried out unless the
Northern Cyprus legislative assembly
decides so under the provisions of Article 78. As of 2024
[update]
, Northern Cyprus has never carried out an execution.
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