Brussels, Nov 13 (RIA Novosti) The European Union (EU) is hoping that Russia will not abolish the moratorium on the death penalty, an official of the 27-member block has said.
Russia undertook to scrap the death penalty when it signed Protocol 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, but it has not yet ratified the document.

Russia’s Constitutional Court held a session on Monday on whether the death penalty should be restored, but after several hours of hearings, turned the ruling to a closed session to be held later in the year. The court said the decision may come before the new year.

“It (the death penalty) is unacceptable for us as it is against our common values,” Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, said Wednesday during the debates in the European parliament prior to a Russia-EU summit Nov 18.

The court’s 1999 ruling declared that the death penalty could not be applied until trial by jury had been introduced in all Russian regions.

The troubled North Caucasus republic of Chechnya will become Russia’s last region where juries will be allowed as an alternative to panels of judges Jan 1, 2010, removing the formal obstacle to reinstating capital punishment in the country.

The court must now decide if by reinstating the death penalty Russia would be violating its international commitments, and if that would be unconstitutional.

Some senior Russian officials and lawmakers have said that the country, bound by its obligations under the European Human Rights Convention, would most likely extend the moratorium despite strong public support for capital punishment.

“We certainly hope it will be so,” Ferrero-Waldner said.