Capital punishment in Ukraine

Capital punishment was abolished in Ukraine in 2000.[1] In 1995 Ukraine had entered the Council of Europe and thus (at the time) it was obliged to undertake to abolish the death penalty.[1] The Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) introduced amendments to the then acting Criminal Code in 2000, according to which “death penalty” was withdrawn from the list of official punishments of Ukraine.[1] Ukraine carried out its last execution in 1997 according to Amnesty International.[2]

Historical outlook

Capital punishment in Ukraine existed soon after fall of the Russian Empire in 1917. Among of known people who was executed by the Ukrainian authorities was Ivan Samosenko. In 1920, Ukraine was split primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian SFSR.

In 1995, Ukraine entered the Council of Europe and one of the obligations it had to undertake with this act was to abolish the death penalty.[3] Little actions to do so were undertaken by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) until September 1998 after international pressure by the Council of Europe and the European Union.[3][4] (At the request of People's Deputies of Ukraine) the Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in December 1999.[3][4] The Verkhovna Rada introduced amendments to the then acting Criminal Code in April 2000 that (finally) withdrew capital punishment from the list of official punishments of Ukraine (in peace and wartime).[1][3][4]

Ukraine was the last Council of Europe member state that used to be part of the Eastern Bloc to abolish the death penalty.[3]

Politics

National Corps Ukrainian far-right political party supports bringing back the death penalty.

Reintroduction in Donetsk People's Republic

The Donetsk People's Republic, an unrecognized state, introduced the death penalty in 2014 for cases of treason, espionage, and assassination of political leaders. There had already been accusations of extrajudicial execution occurring.[5]

References
  1. Serial killer Onopriyenko dies in Zhytomyr prison, Interfax-Ukraine (28 August 2013)
  2. "Annual Report 1999 – Ukraine". Amnesty International. Archived from the original on 10 February 2013.
  3. International Actors, Democratization and the Rule of Law: Anchoring Democracy?, Routledge, 2008, ISBN 0415492955 (page 196 a.f.)
  4. The Death Penalty: Beyond Abolition, Council of Europe, 2004, ISBN 9287153337 (page 74)
  5. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/donetsk-separatists-introduce-death-penalty-for-treason/505271.html
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