Constitutional Court Rules for Ban on Death Penalty
By Galina Stolyarova
Staff Writer
In a much-anticipated ruling, the Constitutional Court on Thursday introduced a permanent ban on capital punishment in Russia. The moratorium on the death penalty was due to expire on Jan. 1, 2010. While the procedure may seem nothing more than a technicality — Russia has signed Protocol Six of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits the use of the death penalty — it has been surrounded by fierce debate. The death penalty was suspended in Russia in 1996, when the country became a member of the Council of Europe and signed Protocol Six. Since then, the Kremlin has periodically promised to ban the death penalty completely, but each time has stopped short of actually doing so. In 1999, the Constitutional Court ruled that capital punishment would not be administered until all of Russia’s 89 regions introduce jury trials, which was due to take place by the beginning of January, 2010. Almost all experts agree that the restoration of the death penalty would have been impossible as it would undermine Russia’s relations with European countries and contribute to the image of Russia as a barbaric state. “The death penalty is the past; you cannot turn back the clock,” said Mikhail Barshchevsky, the official government representative at the Constitutional Court. “Life imprisonment is a much harsher punishment; it is basically like burying someone alive.” Nevertheless, public pressure on the court was considerable. According to polls held in the country from October to November, between 65 and 75 percent of Russians would welcome the return of the death penalty. Defending their views, most ordinary Russians claim that terrorist threats, high levels of corruption and rampant organized crime in the country result in a need for capital punishment. Thirty percent of Russians polled by the Moscow-based Levada Center this month spoke favorably of public executions. Responding to the polls’ results, Anatoly Lyskov, chairman of the Committee on Legal Issues of Russia’s Federation Council, offered to conduct a state-sponsored popular vote on the subject. “A referendum is a costly enterprise but it is a democratic procedure; the Council of Europe and other organizations will have to accept its results,” Lyskov said. “Russian society is very obviously not ready for a complete ban on the death penalty.” President Dmitry Medvedev has suggested that Russia’s transition to a ban on the death penalty should be gradual. His view is shared by the majority in Russia’s ruling party, United Russia. The party leader, Boris Gryzlov, has said that Russia currently needs a temporary solution to the problem in the form of an extended moratorium on capital punishment. These sentiments, however, were countered by Rashid Nurgaliev, Russia’s Interior Minister. “There are some horrendously cruel forms of crime that border on the inhumane, and the only adequate form of punishment for such crimes is the death penalty,” he said. As for possible mistaken verdicts, Nurgaliev suggested raising the levels of liability for investigators and judges whose actions might lead to innocent people being executed. Yakov Gilinsky, a crime analyst with the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that majority support for the death penalty in Russia is a result of the worryingly high levels of violence in the country. “It is a state of mind that reveals itself in different ways: street violence, police violence, high homicide rates, frightening rape statistics,” Gilinsky said. “The social environment in Russia is very aggressive, with people expecting dangers behind every corner. Support for the death penalty is an indicator of the level of fear in society.”
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