Court of So-Called Donetsk People's Republic Issues First Official Death Penalty
The Court of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) has given out the first death penalty in the self-proclaimed republic. As reported by Interfax on Friday, February 12th, the ruling was made by Lyudmila Strateychuk, Judge of the Supreme Court of the so-called DPR and acting Chair of the Court Martial.
She did not specify who was subjected to the exceptional penalty of capital punishment. “There are cases under consideration and they also may result in such a penalty. These are murder and spying cases,” Strateychuk stated.
The Judge noted that the Court Martial of the self-declared Republic has considered two criminal cases in which military personnel of the so-called DPR were involved, and more than 40 others are currently in proceedings.
The Criminal Code allowing the death penalty was adopted by the so-called DPR in August 2014. The death sentence will be carried out by a firing squad. The authorities promised to humanize the Criminal Code once the military conflict in the Donbas is over.
“The people’s demand is the prevention of criminal activities. For this purpose we should take radical measures that would be based on legal provisions,” as was stated by the Deputy Prime-Minister, Vladimir Antyufeev (who was removed from his position on September 2014).
The head of the so-called DPR, Alexander Zakharchenko, specified that the Code was based on the Russian legislative code and the death penalty is adopted here for especially harsh crimes (Since 1997 there has been a moratorium of the death penalty in Russia, however, its notion still remains in the national legislation — ed. Lenta.ru). In particular, women, minors and men over 60 cannot be sentenced to death by firing squad. As a pardon, the penalty may be commuted to a life sentence or a prison term of 25 years.