EU says will organise anti-death penalty day

DRESDEN, Germany, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The European Union will organise its first official day against the death penalty on October 10, the bloc's top justice and security official said today.

The hanging of two of Saddam Hussein's aides yesterday brought a new wave of condemnation from the EU and other countries opposed to capital punishment, the accidental decapitation of one of them adding to the sense of revulsion.

Portuguese Justice Minister Alberto Bernardes Costa said today his country would organise the European day against the death penalty this year, EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said.

Portugal will hold the EU's rotating presidency in the second half of this year.

''My proposal is to dedicate every year the 10th of October to a European day (against the death penalty),'' Frattini said at the end of a meeting of EU justice ministers in Dresden.

The death penalty is banned in the EU but still exists in 68 nations around the world. The EU advocates a universal ban.

A few hours after Saddam's aides were hanged, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he backed an Italian-led campaign for the United Nations to agree to a global moratorium on capital punishment.

Saddam's half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, had his head ripped from his body by the noose when he was hanged for crimes against humanity with another of the Iraqi president's accomplices.

Saddam was hanged on December 30.

REUTERS SP RAI2027