Korean bishops enlist performers for rally against capital punishment

(Aug.18,2010) A Korean Church committee has mobilized local celebrities for a concert against capital punishment to be held next month. Well-known personalities, including singers and poets, will appear at the Sept. 2 event, organized by the anti-death penalty sub-committee of the Korean bishops’ Council for Justice and Peace. The country has not used the death penalty since 2007, but the laws for the death penalty still remain valid,” the subcommittee warned. “Whenever terrible crimes, such as serial murders, or crimes against children occur, voices in favour of capital punishment seem to grow louder,” it said. Severe penalties for those committing extreme crimes are important, Bishop Matthias Ri Iong-hoon, president of the Bishops’ Committee for Justice and Peace said in a statement. “That they are punished is one thing, but that a state takes the life of a human being is quite another,” he emphasized. “I hope that people who love peace and life will take the lead in ending the spiral of violence,” he added.
The death penalty subcommittee has campaigned for 10 years for an end to capital punishment.