RUSSIAN LAWMAKERS MOVE TO EXTEND MORATORIUM ON DEATH PENALTY

December 8, 2006: Russia’s Parliament extended a 10-year moratorium on the death penalty to 2010, an extension of three years, by delaying the introduction of juries in court cases in the rebellious republic of Chechnya. Some Western governments and domestic opponents of capital punishment have pressed President Vladimir Putin to scrap it for good. But he is also under pressure from conservatives at home who will probably use the issue in campaigning for parliamentary elections in 2007. 
The State Duma passed a bill under which juries will replace three-judge panels in Chechnya in 2010, rather than in 2007 as had been planned.
Russia, which still has capital punishment in its criminal code, has observed a moratorium on carrying out death sentences since 1996.
"The introduction of the new law means that, for another three years, courts will not have the right to impose death sentences," a senior Communist Party deputy, Viktor Ilyukhin, said after the Duma vote.
The bill has yet to be considered by the Federation Council and signed into law by Putin, but analysts said it would probably pass those stages easily. (Sources: Reuters, 08/12/2006)