Capital punishment in the Netherlands (Dutch: doodstraf in Nederland) was abolished in 1870 in criminal law after the States General recognized it to be "cruel and uncivilized". The bill was introduced by liberal-catholic Minister of Justice Franciscus van Lilaar and debated in both the Senate and House of Representatives for seven days before approval. Following the abolition of the death penalty, life imprisonment was made an official punishment in 1878.
A few years after gaining independence in 1815, the Kingdom of the Netherlands determined that the death penalty could be carried out through beheading.[1] Between 1945 and 1952, 142 war criminals from World War II were sentenced to death by the Bijzonder Gerechtshof for treason of the State of the Netherlands and the deportation of Dutch Jews. Forty-two of the death sentence were carried out. The last persons to be executed under military law were SS officers Andries Jan Pieters and Artur Albrecht in March 1952. Capital punishment remained a legal military option until 1983 when it was explicitly forbidden in the Constitution of the Netherlands. In 1991, all references to the death penalty were removed from Dutch law.
Today the Netherlands operates a clear policy against capital punishment, not participating in extradition if the suspect has a chance of facing execution in the state seeking extradition.[citation needed]
- ^ "Netherlands". 29 March 2023.