#15
gazeta.ru
December 10, 2001
Duma Discusses Abolishment of Death Penalty
By Sergei Ivashko
In January the State Duma will again vote on whether or not the death penalty should be abolished in Russia. A bill on the abolishment of the death penalty has been drafted by the liberal Union of Right forces (SPS) party. Some observers claim that the SPS’ initiative is not motivated by humanitarian values, rather the party is seeking to win favour with President Putin who is known to be as a staunch opponent of the death penalty or “legalized murder” as he has called it.
On Monday, December 10, the State Duma again discussed the issue of the death penalty in Russia. To mark the UN’s Human Rights Day, the Duma’s Legislation Committee and the Committee for Public and Religious Entities organized a conference on the death penalty in Russia. However, the organizers of the conference failed to convince many of those who attended that Russia must for once and for all abolish the death penalty.
For example, the first deputy chief of the Fatherland-All Russia (OVR) faction in the State Duma Konstantin Kosachev told Gazeta.Ru: “Russia does not apply capital punishment anyway, a presidential moratorium is in force”. Therefore, argues deputy Kosachev, at present there is no need for a law abolishing the death penalty.
Deputy Kosachev also said that the list of crimes punishable by death should be extended. He says that the death penalty should be imposed for planning and perpetrating acts of terrorism.
On Monday another Duma deputy Gadzhi Makhachev, a representative of the Russian internal republic of Dagestan, spoke in favour of the death penalty. Speaking during a break in hearings at the trial of Chechen rebel commander Salman Raduyev in the Supreme Court of Dagestan, Makhachev said that the court should sentence Raduyev to death. Makhachev went further and called for Raduyev to be executed in public, on the central square of the Dagestani capital Makhachkala.
However, the deputy chief of the Duma’s Legislation Committee Alexander Barannikov told Gazeta.Ru that Makhachev’s controversial statement was aimed at drawing media attention rather a genuine desire to see Raduyev’s blood flow in the Dagestani capital: Makhachev reportedly intends to run in the next elections for the post of president of Dagestan. “You will be hearing a lot more from him,” Barannikov said.
As for Barannikov’s own view on the death penalty, he claims that executing murder convicts brings no satisfaction to the relatives of victims.
“I have talked to the father of a girl killed in the Oklahoma-City blast, perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh. At that time approximately half of the relatives of his victims were in favour of his death. But, according to my interlocutor, the news of his execution brought no peace of mind to any of them”.
Deputy Barannikov added that the State Duma now pays close attention to President Putin’s views and it is known that the head of state is resolutely opposed to what he himself has called “legalized murder”.
Barannikov said Monday’s debate in the State Duma between the proponents of the death penalty, Raikov, Zhirinovsky being the most vociferous, and the opponents led by Barannikov himself and human rights envoy Oleg Mironov resembled “a conversation of a blind man with a deaf man.” However, Barannikov is convinced that the lower house deputies will sooner or later vote to abolish the death penalty provision in the Russian Criminal Code for the simple that Putin wants it abolished. Barannikov hopes that the death penalty in Russia will be scrapped in January 2002.
Barannikov said that SPS faction in the lower house has submitted a set of draft bills providing for the abolition of death penalty. The SPS members intend to call upon the house to finally ratify the 6th protocol of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, which expressly bans the death penalty and to cancel the death penalty provision in the Criminal Code accordingly.
“Our committee has already recommended to the deputies to vote the SPS faction’s initiative into law. The ‘rights’ will vote in favour of the decision, Unity would never dare to oppose the president, and probably the OVR faction likewise, so I do not think there will be any problems with that,” holds Barannikov.
But Barannikov did admit that the majority of Russians are still in favour of the death penalty.
“According to public polls, only 20% (of Russians) do not want to have offenders killed. The rest, on the contrary, are in favour of abolishing the presidential moratorium (on passing death sentences). But I think, that the Duma should form the public opinion, not to be guided by it. The goal of the state is not to eliminate a criminal who has committed a murder, but to secure the public from him. The Criminal Code envisages such punishment as life imprisonment. I think it fully ensures the fulfilment of that responsibility of the state”.
In 1996 Russia imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in order to meet the criteria for membership to the Council of Europe. Later the Constitutional Court of Russia ruled that the death penalty provisions of Criminal Code run counter to the federal Constitution, which declares that any person tried for a crime punishable with capital punishment has the right to have his case examined by a trial of jury. And since there are provisions for the trial by jury in only 9 of Russia’s 89 regions, even if the moratorium were lifted, the imposition of the death penalty would remain a spurious issue.
In Russia the death penalty was last implemented in 1996.