 DATE: At the end of the movie, newsreader Trevor McDonald (I) (qv)  says that Sauverge was charged with "high treason", a crime "still  punishable with the death penalty under UK law". On 31 July 1998,  high treason and piracy with violence ceased to be capital crimes.  On 27 January 1999, the Home Secretary (Jack Straw) formally signed  the 6th protocol of the European Convention of Human Rights in  Strasbourg, on behalf of the British government formally abolishing  the death penalty in the UK.