On December 3, Deputy Justice Minister Lidia Gorbunova...

On December 3, Deputy Justice Minister Lidia Gorbunova said Ukraine was moving towards abolition of death penalty even though the society regarded this as premature because the Council of Europe was pressing for abolition, and Ukraine itself was willing to make its laws more humane. Seventy-one death sentences were passed over the first six months of 1999. The Supreme Court upheld 46 out of the 48 death sentences appealed, Gorbunova went on to say. At the Justice Ministry's instigation, the Cabinet submitted to the Verkhovna Rada draft amendments to the Criminal Code providing for abolition of capital punishment and introduction of life imprisonment, but the Parliament denied support to them. Borys Oliynyk, head of Ukraine's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said he believed that capital punishment might be repealed automatically if the Constitutional Court rules it unconstitutional. Earlier in the month, the Human Rights Committee sent to Parliament two bills providing for a moratorium on death penalty. On the other hand, in the light of a low legal culture level among the population and significant social problems, Ukraine would need from 3 to 5 years to get rid of the death penalty. The Council of Europe Rapporteur on the subject Renate Wohlwend said that when Ukraine joined the Council, it undertook to abolish death penalty within 3 years (before November 1998). The Council will lean on Ukraine to get it to honor its commitments, Wohlwend said.