Brussels, 06/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of the EU-India Summit, which took place in New Delhi on Wednesday (EUROPE 9020), Amnesty International sent the UK Presidency of the EU a summary of questions raised by the use of the death penalty in India. "As the EU is already engaged in a persistent effort to seek abolition of the death penalty around the world and has for this purpose drawn up policy guidelines towards third countries, it should take the opportunity of the Summit to engage India in this process", said Dick Oosting, director of the European office of Amnesty International, in a press release. The human rights defence organisation is calling on the EU to urge the government to institute an immediate moratorium on capital punishment and to publish information and figures about death sentencing in the country. "India wields tremendous influence in Asia", Mr Oosting added, going on to say that it "could encourage the abolition of the death penalty across the region if it led by example". The briefing paper is available at: http://www.amnesty-eu.org .