Supreme Court Chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev said that...

Supreme Court Chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev said that jury-based courts would begin to operate in 70 of Russia's 89 regions on January 1, 2003. He added that the switch from trials by judge to trials by jury had been carefully prepared through professional conferences held in all seven federal districts. Lebedev said that by jury-based courts will function everywhere in Russia except in Chechnya, where trials by jury are expected to be introduced in 2007. Under a decision of Russia's Constitutional Court, he said, courts will be allowed to apply the death penalty once jury courts exists in all of Russia's regions.