The Russian judiciary community will support the abolition...

The Russian judiciary community will support the abolition of the death penalty."The whole judiciary corps absolutely agrees with the president's position on this issue," Russian Supreme Court Chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev told the press. President Vladimir Putin recently opposed re-introduction of the death penalty in Russia"Russia is a member of the Council of Europe. Therefore, there cannot be any doubts on this issue," he stressed.The capital punishment issue is an urgent one, since trials by jury are to start operating in all Russian regions at the beginning of 2003. [The Constitutional Court had ruled that as long as most Russian regions do not have jury trials, no court could hand down a death sentence].