>MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Boris Yeltsin plans to commute hundreds
>of death sentences in the next few days, emptying death row and in effect
>eliminating capital punishment, an official said Monday.
>Robert Tsivilev, head of the presidential Pardons Commission, told Reuters he
>expected the president to sign four decrees this week which would commute all
>Russia's remaining death sentences to lengthy prison terms.
>``I hope that in two or three days we will not have a single person left in
>our country awaiting execution,'' he said by telephone.
>``In practice, Russia will join those countries that do not have the death
>penalty. I think this is a big step in the direction of democracy and
>civilization for our country.''
>Tsivilev, who took over the Pardons Commission last October, said Yeltsin had
>already commuted the sentences of about 400 of the 716 prisoners on death row
>at the beginning of the year. The decrees commuting the rest were written and
>awaiting the president's signature, he said.
>The sudden upsurge in pardons followed years of little action against capital
>punishment.
>In 1996 Yeltsin placed a moratorium on carrying out executions as part of
>Russia's bid to join the Council of Europe, which forbids member states to
>execute prisoners in peace time.
>The death sentence was last carried out in Russia, by the traditional method
>of a single bullet to the back of the head, on September 2, 1996. But little
>was done to move other prisoners off death row.
>Only 148 death sentences were commuted in 1998, and not a single one in 1996
>or 1997.
>``For a person to sit in prison, waiting for execution, this is torture,''
>said Tsivilev.
>``I could not understand why the process should go so slowly. I presented the
>situation to the president, and he supported the decision to speed the
>process up. I sent him a note, and he agreed that by the end of May all the
>death penalty cases should be resolved.''
>The death penalty remains on the books in Russia for serious crimes, and is
>backed by legislators who see the country as plagued by crime.
>But the Constitutional Court has ruled that the death sentences may not be
>passed down in the 80 of Russia's 89 regions that do not have jury trials.
>Tsivilev said he thought it would be difficult to have death penalty laws
>formally repealed, but that the stances of the Constitutional Court and the
>president were enough to prevent executions from resuming.
>``The majority of the public would like to see the death penalty retained.
>But two high government organs -- the Constitutional Court and the president
>-- insist on the single position that there should not be a death penalty,''
>he said.