Italiano
Putin Speaks
Against Death Penalty
MOSCOW
- President Vladimir Putin expressed strong opposition Monday to the death penalty, saying Russia
should not restore executions despite public support for them.
``The state must not
claim the right to take human life away, which belongs only to the
Almighty,'' Putin said at a Kremlin meeting with World Bank President James Wolfensohn, according to the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news
agencies.
Russia introduced a
moratorium on the death penalty in 1996 as a condition for entrance to the
Council of Europe, the continent's leading human rights watchdog. Russia
has not banned capital punishment entirely.
Putin said he
understands why opinion polls show most Russians support reviving the
death penalty, blaming the view on the turmoil of the past decade since
the collapse of the Soviet system.
Wolfensohn arrived
in Russia on Sunday to open a conference on court reform and expressed
support for Putin's pledges to overhaul Russia's cumbersome, often corrupt
judicial system.
July
11, 2001
Russian
President Takes Stand Against Reviving Death Penalty
MAURA
REYNOLDS, TIMES STAFF WRITER
MOSCOW
-- President Vladimir V. Putin's words were uncharacteristically strong
and unequivocal--"I am against the restoration of capital punishment
in Russia"--and they set off a fresh wave of controversy Tuesday over
whether the country needs the death penalty.
The
statement late Monday ended months of fence-sitting by the Russian
president, torn between overwhelming support for the death penalty by his
countrymen and overwhelming opposition to it in Western Europe.
"The
state should not arrogate for itself a right which belongs only to the
Almighty," Putin said after meeting with World Bank President James
D. Wolfensohn. In order to retain membership in European organizations,
Russia has been halfheartedly observing a moratorium on capital punishment
since 1996, but the statute permitting its use remains on the books.
Russian
polls show that about 80% of respondents favor the death penalty. Some
judges have defied the Kremlin and continued to sentence people to death,
although the sentences have not been carried out.
"For
the time being, the majority of our people believe [the death penalty]
should be left at least for intimidation," said Gennady N. Seleznyov,
speaker of parliament's lower house, the State Duma. "What's the use
of hurrying" to ban it?
Debate
over capital punishment revived in Russia last month after a top general
called for the execution of Chechen terrorists.
"When
you look at it, it seems you'd strangle [these criminals] with your own
hands," Putin said in his remarks. "But as a person who received
a basic legal education, I know that a tougher penalty will not reduce
crime."
It
was perhaps the first time in Putin's presidency that he took a position
clearly at odds with polls. He has frequently cited polls when he has
taken public stands--for instance, when he reinstated the music of the
Soviet anthem last winter.
But
Sergei Kovalyov, Russia's most prominent human rights campaigner, said
that when it comes to the death penalty, foreign policy trumps domestic
policy.
"I
don't think Putin is a convinced opponent of the death penalty,"
Kovalyov said. "But there is nothing else Russia can do. . . . The
Kremlin's ultimate task in international relations is to drive a wedge
between Europe and the United States." And for that, it must remain a
member of European organizations.
Russia
belongs to the Council of Europe, which requires that the death penalty
not be imposed. Membership in the European Union, to which Russia aspires,
requires membership in the Council of Europe.
Putin's
position on the death penalty had been unclear in part because last year
he stopped issuing presidential pardons. The practice was begun in 1996 by
his predecessor, Boris N. Yeltsin, who used pardons to commute death
sentences.
Early
in his administration, Yeltsin established a presidential clemency
commission as a safety valve in a justice system acknowledged as flawed
and cruel. However, last year Putin for the most part stopped signing
clemency petitions, in an apparent effort to appease the Justice Ministry,
which administers prisons and disliked the interference.
In
2000, Putin approved more than 12,000 clemency requests. But in the last
few months of the year, he issued only eight, and none this year,
according to Anatoly Pristavkin, chairman of the clemency panel.
Critics
say that if Russia had a fair and consistent justice system, there would
be no reason to have a clemency commission. Prosecutors rely less on
investigative evidence to prove their case than on suspects'
confessions--which inmates say frequently are beaten out of them. Judges
rarely rule against prosecutors in criminal cases, and jail terms tend to
be long.
Putin
has made judicial reform a top priority, but some of the proposed changes
have been resisted by the Justice Ministry and other judicial bodies.
Pavel
Krasheninnikov, chairman of the Duma's legislation committee, said
parliament will
Putin
Speaks Against Death Penalty
By
ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW
- President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) insisted that Russia
should not revive the death penalty, saying Monday that only ``the
Almighty'' has the right to take life.
It
was the ex-KGB agent's strongest public statement yet against the death
penalty.
Russia
suspended the practice in 1996 to gain entrance to Europe's leading human
rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, but it still has widespread
support among Russians.
``The
state must not claim the right to take human life away, which belongs only
to the Almighty,'' Putin said during a Kremlin meeting with European
justice officials. ``I can tell you firmly I am against the renewal of the
death penalty in Russia.''
Putin
said he understands why opinion polls show most Russians support resuming
capital punishment, blaming the turmoil of the decade since the collapse
of the Soviet system and violence against Russians by ``international
terrorists.''
He
was referring to the nearly two-year war in Chechnya (news - web sites).
Troops entered the republic in September 1999 after apartment bombings
blamed on the Chechens killed about 300 people and Chechnya-based
militants invaded a neighboring region.
``Many
of our citizens were killed by those bandits. When one sees all this, one
not only wants these bandits to be caught and tried, but - and I won't be
afraid or ashamed to say this in this audience - sometimes it seems I
would have strangled them with my own hands,'' he said Monday, in remarks
carried on Russian television stations.
``But
these are only emotions. As a man with a basic legal education ... I am
well aware that the toughening of punishment does not lead to uprooting
crime,'' he said. ``By toughening the punishment the government does not
get rid of ruthlessness, it only generates it again and again.''
Russia
has a centuries-old tradition of executions, and they were a key tool of
terror in the Soviet police state. The disintegration of the Soviet system
freed political prisoners, but it also spurred a rise in violent and
organized crime.
Justice
Minister Yuri Chaika recently proposed restoring the death penalty for
convicted terrorists, and the commander of Russia's campaign in Chechnya,
Gen. Gennady Troshev, called for Chechen rebels to be publicly executed.
Parliament
has balked at outlawing capital punishment altogether, citing polls that
show most Russians support the death penalty. But presidential aide Dmitry
Kozak said Monday that the country has no plans to lift the moratorium.
Vladimir Poutine contre
le r�tablissement de la peine de mort en Russie
MOSCOU
(AP) -- Le pr�sident russe Vladimir Poutine a r�affirm� lundi que la
Russie ne reviendrait pas sur la suppression de la peine de mort, d�cid�e
en 1996 pour entrer au Conseil de l'Europe.
''L'Etat ne doit pas s'arroger
le droit de prendre une vie humaine, qui n'appartient qu'au Tout-Puissant'',
a d�clar� le chef du Kremlin, qui rencontrait � Moscou des responsables
judiciaires europ�ens. ''Je peux vous dire fermement que je suis contre
le retour � la peine de mort en Russie''.
Vladimir Poutine a ajout�
qu'il comprenait que l'opinion publique soit majoritairement favorable,
selon des sondages, au r�tablissement de la peine de mort, �tant donn�
la situation du pays � cause de l'effondrement de l'Union sovi�tique il
y a dix ans et des violences commises par ''les terroristes
internationaux'', en l'occurrence les rebelles tch�tch�nes qui tiennent
les troupes russes en �chec depuis deux ans. Moscou leur impute les
attentats qui ont fait environ 300 morts en 1999.
Pour le pr�sident russe,
la priorit� est de r�former le syst�me judiciaire, souvent corrompu, h�rit�
de l'�re sovi�tique.
Ces d�clarations ont �t�
salu�es dans un communiqu� par le pr�sident de l'Assembl�e nationale
fran�aise, Raymond Forni, qui a jug� ''cette d�cision d'autant plus
remarquable que l'opinion russe souhaite majoritairement qu'il soit mis
fin au moratoire'' russe. M. Poutine ''s'est exprim� avec courage. (...)
Cette d�claration d�montre, s'il �tait besoin, de quel poids d�cisif
l'engagement des politiques peut peser dans la lutte contre la peine
capitale''.
Vladimir Poutine contre
la peine de mort, malgr� les pressions
MOSCOU, 9 juil
- Le
pr�sident russe Vladimir Poutine a d�clar� lundi, pour la premi�re
fois, �tre contre la peine de mort malgr� les pressions redoubl�es des
partisans de la peine capitale qui appellent � une lev�e du moratoire
sur les ex�cutions, en vigueur depuis 1996.
"Je suis contre le r�tablissement
en Russie de la peine de mort. L'Etat ne doit pas s'octroyer un droit
divin", a d�clar� le pr�sident lors d'une table ronde au Kremlin
avec James Wolfensohn, le pr�sident de la Banque mondiale, et des
magistrats �trangers.
C'est la premi�re fois
depuis qu'il a �t� �lu en mars 2000 que Vladimir Poutine exprimait son
opinion sur la peine de mort, un sujet revenu au devant de l'actualit�
avec la r�forme judiciaire qui pr�voit la cr�ation de cours d'assises
dans toutes les r�gions de Russie.
"La majorit� �crasante
de la population est pour le r�tablissement de la peine de mort. Je la
comprends. Certaines personnes ont �t� victimes de terroristes
internationaux. Parfois, j'ai l'impression que je pourrais les �trangler
de mes propres mains mais ce sont des sentiments exprim�s sous le coup de
l'�motion", a ajout� le pr�sident.
"En tant que juriste,
je sais qu'un durcissement des punitions ne conduit pas � l'�radication
de la criminalit�", a encore estim� l'ex-agent du KGB qui a fait
ses �tudes de droit � Saint-P�tersbourg.
Le d�bat sur la peine de
mort a �t� relanc� ces derni�res semaines en Russie � la faveur d'une
ambitieuse r�forme judiciaire lanc�e par le Kremlin et actuellement
examin�e par le Parlement.
Elle pr�voit notamment l'introduction
de cours d'assises d'ici 2003 dans toutes les r�gions de Russie.
Les partisans de la peine
de mort se sont aussit�t engouffr�s dans cette br�che, pr�nant une lev�e
du moratoire sur les ex�cutions capitales, impos� en 1996 par Boris
Eltsine � la suite de l'adh�sion de la Russie au Conseil de l'Europe.
Le conseiller du Kremlin,
Dmitri Kozak, qui est charg� de faire accepter la r�forme judiciaire par
les d�put�s, dans leur grande majorit� favorables au r�tablissement de
la peine capitale, a tenu des propos ambigus sur cette question.
Lundi matin, il a d�clar�
que la Russie n'envisageait pas de lever le moratoire sur la peine de mort
"dans un avenir proche", lors d'une conf�rence organis�e par
la Banque mondiale sur la r�forme judiciaire � Saint-P�tersbourg.
Le ministre de la Justice
Iouri Tcha�ka a pour sa part r�cemment d�clar� "avoir chang�
d'opinion sur la peine de mort", laissant entendre qu'il �tait pour
la peine capitale dans le cas d'actes terroristes.
Plusieurs leaders r�gionaux,
dont le gouverneur de la r�gion de Sverdlovsk (Oural), Edouard Rossel, se
sont �galement prononc�s en faveur de la peine capitale pour les
trafiquants de drogue.
M�me l'�glise orthodoxe
a joint sa voix au d�bat.
"Les Ecritures n'interdisent
pas la peine de mort", a d�clar� vendredi dernier le m�tropolite
des r�gions de Smolensk et de Kaliningrad (ouest) Kirill, charg� des
relations ext�rieures au Patriarcat de Moscou.
Ces appels au retour des
ex�cutions capitales trouvent un �cho ind�niable aupr�s de la
population russe.
Six personnes sur dix (61
%) sont en faveur de la lev�e du moratoire, selon le dernier sondage de
la Fondation de l'Opinion Publique.
Soucieux cependant de ne
pas ternir son image d'homme � poigne, Vladimir Poutine a soulign� que
"le syst�me judiciaire devait fonctionner d'une mani�re efficace
pour que la punition soit appliqu�e".
Il a pr�cis� que les
salaires des juges, dont la corruption mine le syst�me judiciaire russe,
devraient �tre "multipli�s par quatre en trois ans".
Tuesday
July 10,
Putin's opposition
to death penalty divides Russian deputies
MOSCOW,
(AFP) -
President Vladimir
Putin's declaration that he opposes the death penalty resounded through
the Russian parliament Tuesday as State Duma lower house deputies revealed
sharply divergent positions on the issue.
An impromptu
sounding of lawmakers' opinions by the ITAR-TASS news agency found the
Communist and right-wing parties more likely to favour the retention of
capital punishment than liberal or centrist parties, but there were
divisions even within parties themselves.
The human rights
defender Sergei Kovalyov, who has no party affiliation, said he doubted
Putin was a heartfelt opponent of the death penalty and believed the
president wanted to align himself with European opinion against the United
States.
"I don't think
Putin is a convinced opponent of the death penalty. But Russia can do
nothing else if it does not want the issue of its possible exclusion from
the Council of Europe coming up again," the Interfax news agency
quoted him as saying.
"The Kremlin is
trying to conduct an effective European policy and set Europe against the
United States," he noted.
Putin told a group
of foreign experts in the Kremlin Monday that he believed the state had
"no right to grant itself a divine right" and said the penalty
was not an effective means of fighting crime.
Deputy parliamentary
speaker Vladimir Lukin of the liberal Yabloko faction, quoted by ITAR-TASS,
said Russia should align itself with the European nations that had placed
a total ban on capital punishment.
He said he "fully
shares" Putin's view on abolishing the death penalty, and called for
parliament to "ratify the relevant international documents -- the
so-called protocol six -- as soon as possible."
His colleague, the
parliamentary speaker, moderate Communist Gennady Seleznyov, said there
should be no haste in ordering a total ban on executions.
"We should take
people's views into account since a majority thinks that the death penalty
should remain as a deterrent," he said, referring to opinion polls
which indicated recently that 61 percent of Russians favoured retaining
capital punishment.
"Why should we
hurry, we don't impose the death penalty anyway, having announced a
moratorium," Seleznyov noted.
Another Communist,
Anatoly Lukyanov, chairman of the Duma committee on state development,
called for maintaining the moratorium on executions.
Since Russia joined
the Council of Europe in 1996 it has observed a moratorium on executions,
though death sentences continue to be handed out by the courts.
However in recent
weeks, prominent figures such as Nobel Prize-winning writer Alexander
Solzhenitsyn and Justice Minister Yury Chaika have called for the death
penalty to be retained for "terrorist actions".
The chairman of the
Duma committee on legislation, Pavel Krasheninnikov of the Union of
Rightist Forces, called for a total ban and proposed a resolution in
parliament calling for the ratifiction of protocol 6.
However the leader
of the People's Deputies faction, Gennady Raikov, said his group would
insist on ending the moratorium, allowing executions to proceed "for
particularly serious crimes."
And
Alexei Mitrofanov of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic party said
his faction believed it would be "a mistake" for the state to
drop the death penalty from its arsenal
- 11/07/2001
VERSO l'ABOLIZIONE
PENA DI MORTE IL FUORIGIOCO DI PUTIN
Fulvio Scaglione
Di questa globalizzazione cos� giustamente criticata
e cos� sommariamente analizzata, bisogner� pur dire che non serve solo a
farci mangiare gli stessi panini in ogni regione del pianeta. Serve anche,
sta servendo, a far sparire dal mondo la pena di morte. A cancellare un
fenomeno globale con una riflessione e un pentimento non meno globali.
Basta osservare quanto accade (e dove) in queste settimane. Gli Stati
Uniti nel 2000 hanno toccato il loro record storico di esecuzioni e nel
2001 hanno scelto come presidente quel George Bush che da governatore del
Texas, fu implacabile nel rifiutare ogni grazia: ma oggi la situazione �
gi� cambiata, e persino i giudici repubblicani della Corte Suprema
criticano quel barbarico anacronismo giudiziario. La Turchia sceglie la
via della moratoria, ansiosa di sentirsi parte dei destini d'Europa. E la
Russia, in queste ore, d� una lezione a Usa e Turchia, e soprattutto ad
affezionati clienti del boia come Cina e Iran, con la clamorosa
dichiarazione del presidente Putin: �Lo Stato non pu� arrogarsi un
diritto che spetta solo all'Altissimo: quello di togliere a un uomo la
vita�. Uscita che di fatto preannuncia non il ritiro della moratoria (che
scade a fine anno), ma l'abolizione della pena nella Federazione Russa.
Pare giusto tirare in ballo la globalizzazione perch�
dietro questa possibile e ormai probabile vittoria dell'etica c'� anche
tanta politica. Cominciamo ad avvertire quanto pesino, nel dibattito
mondiale, i primi e pur lenti e faticosi passi dell'Unione europea come
reale entit� politica. Della Turchia abbiamo detto, il rigetto della pena
capitale non pare il tratto pi� evidente del suo Dna storico, ma pi�
dell'eredit� del passato la colpisce oggi l'idea di trovarsi in futuro
lontana dall'Europa, propaggine occidentale di un'Asia sempre minacciata
(tra Iraq e Iran, India e Pakistan, l'Afghanistan e il Caucaso) da
conflitti vecchi e nuovi. Anche gli Usa le cui ambizioni mondiali devono
fare i conti ormai con l'Europa della cultura e dei commerci pi� che con
i fatiscenti arsenali dei nemici d'un tempo, prendono oggi atto che quel
residuo del passato non serve alla giustizia e non c'entra con la
democrazia.
E poi la Russia. Putin come al solito, ha giocato le
sue carte con astuzia. Prima ha detto, con retorica: so che la maggioranza
dei russi (il 75 per cento, secondo recenti sondaggi) vorrebbe
reintrodurre la pena di morte e quando penso ai civili uccisi dai
terroristi li capisco. Ma poi ha scelto l'ipotesi contraria e non pu�
essere un caso che l'abbia fatto con il massimo clamore proprio alla
presenza di James Wolfehnson, il presidente della Banca Mondiale. Non si
deve poi dimenticare che la moratoria alla pena di morte fu decisa da
Eltsin nel 1996, quando la Russia entr� nel Consiglio d'Europa; n� che
il dibattito chiuso ieri da Putin era cominciato qualche mese fa di nuovo
allo stesso Consiglio, quando un deputato russo aveva proposto la pena
capitale per i trafficanti di droga. Restano fuori, come si diceva, la
Cina (la cui prudenza nelle riforme, che ad alcuni tanto piace, proprio su
questo si regge: sull'uso della morte di Stato che non ha uguali) e
l'Iran, che non a caso sono fuori sia pure per ragioni diverse, anche da
quasi tutte le istituzioni sovrannazionali.
In questo quadro si � inserito un altro fenomeno
globale, forse il pi� globale di tutti: la straordinaria predicazione di
un pellegrino, Giovanni Paolo II, che da Roma ha raggiunto ogni angolo del
pianeta, indifferente ai pregiudizi e alle frontiere, impegnato solo a
ricordare l'identico valore della vita in qualunque condizione, a
qualunque latitudine, e proprio per questo capace di spronare tanto le
singole coscienze, quanto le decisioni collettive. Moltissimi dei beati
elevati agli altari da questo Papa, per esempio tra i martiri della fede
dell'Ucraina, furono vittime della pena capitale e di sistemi giudiziari
allora ritenuti legali, normali, forse persino �giusti�. Impossibile non
notarlo.
Pu� stupire, infine, che da questo positivo cammino
si sia imprevedibilmente scostata proprio la Chiesa ortodossa russa, una
grande Chiesa cristiana che cos� tanto nei secoli ha dovuto soffrire per
mano dello Stato. Le dichiarazioni alla Duma del metropolita Kirill,
braccio destro del patriarca Alessio II, sono difficili da dimenticare: �In
Russia non ci sono le basi per abolire la pena di morte, solo i Paesi in
cui il sistema giudiziario e le forze di polizia funzionano alla
perfezione possono pensare di farlo�. A Mosca in questi giorni le
spiegano come segue: considerando compromesse l'Estonia (dove la locale
Chiesa ortodossa russa sar� costretta dalla legge a tramutarsi in una
modesta diocesi di Mosca) e l'Ucraina (dove lo scisma � ormai
consolidato, all'ombra della finta neutralit� dello Stato), la Chiesa
ortodossa tenta di premere sul Cremlino e sul Parlamento russo per rendere
inattaccabile la sua fortezza russa. Questo spiegherebbe la violenza delle
recenti polemiche, a uso interno, sulla visita del Papa in Ucraina (che
sulle sorti dell'ecumenismo avranno effetti pari a zero) come pure le
populistiche dichiarazioni del metropolitana Kirill. Una trappola che
Putin, vittima designata, ha rovesciato sul cacciatore.
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