He was categorical about the government’s position while talking to reporters at the end of a meeting with a European Parliament delegation in Dhaka on Thursday.



“When the issue of the death penalty was raised, I told them unambiguously that the present laws that provide for the death penalty would not be changed,” he told reporters.



“We’ll try to do that (abolition of the death penalty) when we enact new laws in future,” he said.



The European Union has been long urging Bangladesh to do away with the punishment. It repeated the call even when the country executed several war criminals.