Court extends Russian ban on death penalty

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- A Russian court extended a nationwide death-penalty ban, ruling the decade-old ban had set Russia on a path toward a permanent end of capital punishment.

"This decision is final and may not be appealed," Constitutional Court President Waleri Sorkin wrote.

Court Chairman Valery Zorkin, reading the ruling, said the moratorium on executions would remain in place until the Russian parliament ratifies a European Convention protocol banning the death penalty.

The Russian ban, due to expire in January, established "stable guarantees of a person's right not to be subjected to the death penalty," Zorkin quoted the ruling as saying.

Zorkin added Russia had begun an "irreversible process to abolish capital punishment" in line with its "international commitments and global tendencies," the state-run Russian Information Agency Novosti reported.

The court imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in 1999 until all Russian regions ensured the right to a jury trial. The last region without jury trials, the Chechen Republic, is to begin them in January.

State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov of the United Russia party said Thursday the parliament's lower house was unlikely to ratify the European Convention protocol this year.

Gryzlov previously cited strong public support for the resumption of execution by firing squad as the reason for the parliament's failure to ratify the protocol.

State Duma Deputy Speaker Ivan Melnikov, a Communist, said Thursday he believed capital punishment was needed in some cases, RIA Novosti reported.