European Forum

Russian Court abolishes use of death penalty

Russia's Constitutional Court in Moscow effectively outlawed the death penalty today, saying that a moratorium on capital punishment should remain in force until the country fully bans executions.

Constitutional Court chief Valery Zorkin said Russia must extend the moratorium on executions until it ratifies a European convention banning the death penalty. Russia announced a moratorium on capital punishment when it joined the Council of Europe in 1996. It pledged to completely abolish it, but the Kremlin-controlled parliament has been reluctant to do so due to public support for the death penalty. Also, persistent violence in the North Caucasus region has prompted some to demand the death penalty for those involved in terrorism, and there is also public pressure for convicted serial killers, murderers and child abusers to be executed.

Bad for EU ties
Reviving capital punishment, however, would harm relations with the EU and undermine Kremlin claims that Russia is no less modern than European countries. President Dmitry Medvedev has spoken out about the importance of the rule of law and basic human values. "The State Duma hasn't yet ratified the protocol banning capital punishment because many in Russia support the death penalty," said Mikhail Krotov, Medvedev's envoy to the Constitutional Court. "The society needs more time to ban the death penalty. But the government structures support a ban on capital punishment." State Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov refused to say when the lower house could move to ratify the protocol. "We mustn't take up the ratification until we have a public consensus," he told reporters.

A moratorium on the death penalty imposed in 1999 was to lose its legal foundation in January, when jury trials will be introduced in Chechnya - the last region to replace traditional panels of judges in courts with juries, a requirement for the death penalty to return. The moratorium had specified that courts must not hand out death sentences until jury trials were available in all of Russia's provinces. The court specifically said today that the introduction of jury trials in all regions of Russia "doesn't create conditions for using the death penalty."

Sources: Ria Novosti; Associated Press (image); Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Volkskrant (Dutch)