27/08/2015 (Agence Europe) - EU calls for moratorium on death penalty to be re-instated in Kurdistan region. On Wednesday 26 August, the spokesperson for High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini called on the government of the autonomous region of Kurdistan in Iraq to re-instate a moratorium, with a view ultimately to abolishing the death penalty. Mogherhini's spokesperson also called on the government of Iraq to do the same, saying that with no executions carried out in the autonomous region of Kurdistan since 2008, the breaking of the de facto moratorium with the execution of Farhad Jaafar Mahmood and his two wives, Khuncha Hassan Ismaeil and Berivan Haider Karim, who were guilty of murder and kidnapping two girls, represented “a step back”. Mogherini's spokesperson said that the moratorium had “set a progressive example in a troubled region, and demonstrated that it is possible to ensure a high level of security without resorting to capital punishment”. (CG)