Russia’s Constitutional Court rules to extend moratorium on death penalty

Russian court extends moratorium on death penalty

ST.PETERSBURG, Russia — Russia’s Constitutional Court effectively outlawed the death penalty Thursday, saying that a moratorium on capital punishment should remain in force until the nation fully bans executions.

Constitutional Court chief Valery Zorkin said that 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 and pledged to abolish it, but has not done so.

The Kremlin-controlled parliament has been reluctant to fully outlaw executions, due to broad public support for the death penalty.

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.

But reviving capital punishment 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.”

The court’s ruling came as an earlier moratorium on death penalty imposed in 1999 was to lose its legal foundation in January, when jury trials are to be introduced in Chechnya. The moratorium had specified that courts must not hand out death sentences until jury trials are available in all of Russia’s provinces. Chechnya is the only province where they have not been introduced.

The court specifically said Thursday that the introduction of jury trials in all regions of Russia “doesn’t create conditions for using the death penalty.”