#20 - JRL 2009-212 - JRL Home
Ban on death penalty should be followed by ban on abortion - Russian Patriarchate

MOSCOW. Nov 19 (Interfax) - The Moscow Patriarchate has spoken in
support of the Russian Constitutional Court's decision to ban the use of
the death penalty in Russia.

"It would be madness to introduce the death penalty in Russia. To
me the court decision was obvious and I was calm about it," Dimitry
Smirnov, the head of the synod's department for liaison with the Armed
Forces and law enforcement agencies, said in an interview with Interfax
on Wednesday.

Recalling the Christian commandment "Do not kill," Smirnov said a
person who has committed a grave crime and is serving his sentence in
prison has a chance to repent.

"I am also against abortion. It's when my fellow citizens are
killed in their mothers' wombs with the taxpayers' money. It's the death
penalty for no crime at all. It would be good if the Constitutional
Court also abolished the death penalty for babies," Smirnov said.

It's one and the same problem. In the first case, people are killed
as a result of judicial errors, and in the first case innocent people,
future Suvorovs, Kutuzov, and Mendeleyevs get killed," he said.

 

 

 

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