Italy’s criticisms of increasing Iranian executions has sparked a diplomatic row, but Italian officials remain firm in their opposition to the use of the death penalty.

Link: UNPO’s anti death penalty campaign

Below is an article published by the International Herald Tribune

Italian Premier Romano Prodi defended his country's opposition to the death penalty on Monday [06 August 2007] after Rome's criticism of a spate of public hangings and death sentences in Iran escalated into a diplomatic back-and-forth with Tehran.

"The recent executions have made a strong impression on our public opinion," Prodi was quoted as saying by Italian news agency ANSA. "Italy has a right to express its opposition to these facts."

Prodi's response came after Italian media carried comments by an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman calling Rome's protests an interference in Tehran's internal affairs.

The Italian Foreign Ministry, which is leading a campaign for a worldwide moratorium on capital punishment, protested to Tehran's ambassador on Thursday after Iranian authorities carried out the latest in a series of executions — the public hanging of two men convicting of killing a prominent judge.

Last month Iran hanged 12 criminals who had been convicted of various charges, including rape, kidnapping and drug trafficking.

The ministry said in a statement that it had expressed "strong worry" over the recent executions and over the death sentence handed down last week to two journalists from Iran's Kurdish minority.

The two were detained after 2005 Kurdish protests in Sanandaj, the capital of the western Iranian province of Kurdistan, bordering Iraq. The official Islamic Republic News Agency did not specify what crime they were accused of and there was no immediate comment on when or how they could be executed.

"Iran is a country that abuses the death penalty and denies basic rights. It is a right and a duty to raise our voice," Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Gianni Vernetti told Corriere della Sera daily, reacting to Tehran's accusations of interference.

Italy has traditionally had good relations with Iran and is Tehran's leading trading partner in the European Union.

Prodi, speaking to reporters Monday as he vacationed at the Tuscan seaside resort of Castiglione della Pescaia, said that Iran's annoyance would not escalate into a crisis, and that Italy's criticism of the executions stemmed from the country's general opposition to the death penalty.

"The moratorium on the death penalty remains our policy," Prodi said. "Clearly this has brought tensions with some of the countries that use the death penalty."

Rome began a diplomatic push against capital punishment in the wake of Saddam Hussein's Dec. 30 execution in Iraq and is trying to bring its proposal to the U.N. General Assembly with EU backing. Past lobbying by Italy for U.N. action to have the death penalty abolished has been unsuccessful.