Russia Lawmakers Urge Death Penalty

 Feb 15

By ANGELA CHARLTON, 

MOSCOW - Russia's lower house of parliament appealed to President Vladimir Putin  on Friday to resurrect the death penalty, saying the country's murder rate, one of the world's highest, is undermining the public's confidence in the government.

The State Duma voted 266 to 85 to adopt the non-binding appeal despite warnings from Putin supporters that reviving capital punishment would derail Russia's efforts to shed its repressive past.

Putin has said he has no plans to lift a moratorium Russia imposed in 1996 to gain entrance into Europe's leading human rights body, the Council of Europe.

The State Duma hopes to persuade him to leave the decision up to Russia's regional governments, political analysts say. If he resists, they reserve the option of drawing up legislation to reinstate the death penalty.

"Tens of thousands of people die violent deaths in Russia every year," the appeal said. "Law-abiding citizens are afraid and feel hopeless because criminals who easily take the lives of our compatriots, killing children who are guilty of nothing, can escape punishment..., continuing to threaten people's lives."

The Duma said it was not right to ignore the people's will. Polls show most Russians support the death penalty.

Putin, however, said earlier this week than he has not changed his view that only "the Almighty" has the right to take life.

At the same time, he lamented the rampant crime that has plagued Russia since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union's strict police state, and urged law enforcement officers to use the instruments they have now to do a better job reining in criminals.

After reaching record highs in the early 1990s, Russia's murder rates have dropped slightly in recent years to about 29,000 for its 144 million people, according to Alexander Barannikov, lawmaker with the liberal Union of Right Forces party. That puts Russia with the world's highest per capita murder rate in the world after South Africa, prosecutors have said.

Barannikov, who voted against the appeal, insisted statistics show the death penalty does not reduce the rates of serious crimes.

Another death penalty foe, Union of Right Forces deputy Boris Nadezhdin, said ironically that if the authors of the appeal "insist that we should not orient ourselves toward Western values, then let's act correspondingly and orient ourselves toward Eastern values, for example those of Cambodia or China under the Cultural Revolution."

Supporters of the appeal, who included the Communists and the centrist Fatherland party, insist Russia isn't ready to adopt Western human rights standards, and point out that the United States also applies capital punishment.

"We have today chaos in our hearts and minds and in our economy. Why do we want to follow someone else's example?" said Nikolai Kharitonov, head of the Agrarian Party in the Duma.

Friday, 15 February, 2002, 23:27 GMT

Russian Parliament backs death penalty - Duma: 'Premature' to ban death penalty

 Russia's parliament has approved by a large majority a non-binding resolution against the abolition of the death penalty.

The State Duma, or lower house, voted 266 to 85 in favour of the resolution, claiming it would be premature for Russia to ratify the sixth protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights which bans the death penalty.

 Putin: State has 'no right to grant itself a divine right'

 It also pointed to public support for the death penalty, running at two-thirds in favour according to French news agency, AFP.

 The resolution was presented by the centrist People's Deputies Party, and is a rare snub for the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 Russia has imposed a moratorium on executions since it joined the Council of Europe in 1996.

 Blow for Putin

 However the Kremlin has so far failed to persuade the Duma to ratify legislation regarding the controversial issue, dealing a blow to Mr Putin's attempt to scrap the death penalty.

 In July last year the president had surprised the Russian Government when he said that he felt the state "had no right to grant itself a divine right".

 In 1999 under a constitutional court ruling courts were forbidden from imposing death sentences while most Russian regions still did not have jury trials.

 However by April 2003 jury trials will have become the norm for serious cases which means courts may start imposing death sentences again.

 The resolution passed today urged the Russian Government to put through legislation swiftly so that such courts could begin handing out death sentences.

 Although the moratorium means that this resolution will make little difference immediately, opponents of the death penalty fear that President Putin may find it increasingly different to maintain his positon.