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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Beslan trial stirs Russian death penalty debate |
| 2006-02-10 |
| A senior prosecutor asked a court in southern Russia on Thursday to sentence to death the only attacker known to have survived the siege of Middle School No. 1 in Beslan in September 2004, rekindling a contentious debate over capital punishment in the country. Summing up the state's case against the attacker after an emotionally wrought trial, the deputy prosecutor general, Nikolai Shepel, said the gravity of the terrorist siege, which ended with the deaths of 331 hostages, warranted a penalty of death, despite a government moratorium on executions that has been in place since 1996. His appeal came only two days after President Vladimir Putin reiterated his personal opposition to the death penalty, but said that he would move cautiously in seeking its final abolishment in Parliament, years after Russia committed to doing so. "The court's decision should have a sobering effect on those who want to go down the path of terrorism, so that they know their only future is an unmarked grave," Shepel said in his closing remarks, shown on television. The bloody siege in Beslan, along with other terrorist attacks, have prompted some officials here to call for the restoration of capital punishment, at least for such serious crimes. But the step would contradict not only Russia's international commitments, but also a Constitutional Court ruling in 1999 that declared the death penalty unconstitutional as long as jury trials were not universal. Since that ruling, jury trials have been established in most regions, but in practice they are used inconsistently. The Beslan defendant, Murpashi Kulayev, is being tried before a panel of judges, for example. Kulayev admitted taking part in the attack on Beslan, in which the attackers rounded up more than 1,000 hostages at the school, but he denied responsibility for any of the deaths, most of which occurred when the siege ended in a convulsion of explosions and gunfire on the third day. His trial, which began last summer, has provoked anger and grief among survivors and relatives of the Beslan victims, rather than a sense of justice. On Thursday, with the prosecution wrapping up its case against Kulayev, several relatives announced a hunger strike, protesting that the trial had been neither objective nor thorough. "The true culprits have not been named," one of them, Ella Kesayeva, said, Interfax reported. A verdict could be announced within days. President Boris Yeltsin agreed to a moratorium on capital punishment in 1996 as a condition of joining the Council of Europe, an international organization representing 46 nations that oversees legal, political and human rights issues. Russia promised to submit legislation erasing the death penalty from its criminal code by 1999 but has yet to do so. Russia is the council's only member to still have it on the books. In 1999, Yeltsin commuted the death sentences of 716 prisoners, and government executions have reportedly not been carried out since the moratorium was announced, though the separatist government in Chechnya continued to do so under Islamic law until at least 1999. In an interview with Spanish journalists on Tuesday, Putin said he would defer to Parliament's position on the issue, but he spoke against the capital punishment, as he has before. "Any punishment has several goals," he said. "They include correction and retribution. There is no correction in the case of the death penalty, only retribution." Even so, polls suggest that a majority of Russians still favor the death penalty, as do some legislators, and this has stalled its abolition in Parliament despite repeated efforts to introduce legislation. The Communist leader, Gennady Zyuganov, said Thursday that the Beslan attack underscored the need for capital punishment. "I think that the country is not mature enough for the abolition of the death penalty," he said, according to the official Russian Information Agency. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 "The true culprits have not been named," one of them, Ella Kesayeva, said, Interfax reported. You mean like the To hades with any debates over the death penalty. Just declare a mistrial and set the guy free ... in downtown Beslan. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-02-10 21:28 |
| #2 The death penalty should be strictly reserved for cartoonists who mock the prophet. Conspiracy to murder infiel children should get you a suspended sentence and probation on a first offense. /cough...cough |
| Posted by: Mark Z 2006-02-10 13:40 |
| #1 On Thursday, with the prosecution wrapping up its case against Kulayev, several relatives announced a hunger strike, protesting that the trial had been neither objective nor thorough Flagrante delicto |
| Posted by: badanov 2006-02-10 01:36 |