Hungarian Prime Minister Has No Plans to Introduce Death Penalty

Budapest: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban today informed leading European politicians that the country was not planning to reintroduce the death penalty, only talk about the issue, Chief of Staff Janos Lazar told a press conference.

Orban said on Tuesday that the death penalty should be "kept on the agenda" as previous criminal law measures were not adequate deterrents, even though the European Union forbids the use of capital punishment.

"The Prime Minister does not plan to introduce the death penalty," Lazar said. "There is a debate about the introduction of the death penalty. A debate, so it is not like there is a plan to introduce the death penalty."

Lazar said Orban informed European Parliament President Martin Schulz about this, as well as top officials of the European People's Party, adding that "Hungary will respect the European Union's law."