UK envoy to PH: No to death penalty

BRITISH Ambassador to the Philippines Asif Ahmid  said his government will not extradite convicted Filipinos from the United Kingdom even under an existing treaty if the Philippines revives the  death penalty as espoused by incoming president Rodrigo Duterte.

“We oppose the death penalty everywhere in the world, whether it is in the US, China, Singapore, wherever it is in operation we oppose it. It would be very sad for the Philippines to go back to that,” Ahmid told reporters during the British Queen’s 90th birthday celebration at the ambassador’s residence in Makati last Thursday.

He said the governments of the UK and the Philippines had an existing extradition treaty and its implementation would be affected if capital punishment was revived.

“It (death penalty) will affect the ability to use the extradition treaty,” Ahmid said, adding “we would not extradite somebody to the Philippines if the outcome of that is the imposition of the death penalty.”

He said capital punishment was not the solution to drugs and crime as the death penalty did not solve these problems both in the United States and Indonesia. Estrella Torres