According to the judge, the socio-cultural situation in Russia differs markedly from the state of affairs in the old democracies of Europe.
Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Russia Valery Zorkin allowed the return of the death penalty in the country.
He wrote about this in his new book “Constitutional Justice: Procedure and Meaning”, published on the court's website.
In particular, in the book, Zorkin expressed the opinion that the imposition of a moratorium on the death penalty in 1996 was a concession to those values that are in fact not characteristic of the Russian legal consciousness. The judge emphasized that the socio-cultural situation in Russia differs markedly from the state of affairs in the old democracies of Europe, however, the Constitutional Court is ready to meet halfway and overcome the stereotypes of mass consciousness.
According to Zorkin, while there are premeditated murders, the question of the use of mortal executions cannot be completely closed.
“I really hope that our country’s departure from the law towards those moral and religious views that stand on the positions of a principled renunciation of the death penalty will be successful for Russia,” he wrote in the book.
It should be noted that the death penalty has not been legally abolished in Russia . Since 1996, when the country joined the Council of Europe, Russia has a moratorium on the use of capital punishment . In 2009, the Constitutional Court finally prohibited the courts from passing death sentences. The last death sentence in Russia was carried out in 1996.
Let us remind you that now only Belarus is the only European country that has not yet abolished the death penalty . However, there are many such countries in the world. So, according to the international non-governmental organization “Amnesty International”, in 2020, 483 death sentences were carried out in 18 countries of the world. This is 26% less than in 2019 (657 executions). Most often, executions are used in China, Iran, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
