Russia to scrap jury trials for wide range of crimes

Just .0006% of cases were tried by jury in 2006
John Byrne
Raw Story
Dec. 14, 2008

In Russia, democracy continues to erode.

Less than a year after then-President Vladimir Putin largely stage managed a transition from president to prime minister to get around a term limit law, and four years after the legislature gave Putin the power to appoint governors of his choosing, the Russian parliament has approved a measure that will strip a wide swath of suspects of their right to a jury trial.

By a 355-85 vote, the Kremlin-led lower house of parliament — the Duma — voted to give control of verdicts to a judge in cases of terrorism, hostage-taking, armed insurrection, sabotage and civil disturbances. The proposal will now go to the upper house, where approval is certain.

Ironically for those who lived in the United States during the Cold War, it was Russian communists who rebuked the measure, saying it was another step away from democracy under the Putin-led era.

“It’s another blow to democratic principles of justice,” Communist lawmaker Viktor Ilyukhin said.

Very few suspects get jury even today

Jury trials were introduced in 1993, having been barred for nearly three-quarters of a century during Communist rule.

Yet even as recently as 2006, only 700 of 1.2 million criminal cases were tried by a jury in Russia — so the move may be considered more symbolic than material for most accused of crimes.

The country’s few remaining jury trials are known for their relatively high rate of acquittals, which a wire service said Friday was in part a result of Soviet-era suspicions of the legal process.

Putin’s Russia has seen a marked deterioration in freedoms generally associated with living in a democratic country, though he remains broadly popular. Russia’s economy has risen on the tide of rising oil prices.

The fledgling democracy saw a flourishing of independent media following the fall of the Soviet Union, but Putin — who served as Russia’s president from 2000 to 2008 — clamped down on critics in the press. His term saw the disappearance of independent television stations; the country’s three main television stations are now state-owned.

Almost a dozen journalists have been murdered in Russia since 2002.

Bill author says juries unfairly acquit

One of the bill’s authors, Duma Security Committee chief Vladimir Vasilyev, argued that the measure was needed because juries have acquitted many suspects despite strong incriminating evidence.

Vasilyev, a member of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s dominant United Russia party, argued the trend was particularly visible in the volatile North Caucasus region, where he asserted that ties of clan and kin prompt juries to go easy on terrorism suspects.

“Do we want to look like good guys moving toward democracy?” he said, addressing critics of the bill during Friday’s debate. “I do, too, but the situation demands that we take this action.”

Critics of the bill denounced it as part of a Kremlin crackdown on post-Soviet freedoms.

“United Russia is trying to make the law fit its purpose of preserving power,” Ilyukhin said.

Legal experts say Russia’s justice system is compromised by political influence and corruption.

Some defense lawyers say state security agencies seek to infiltrate juries with operatives who will vote to convict, or blackmail or intimidate jurors into providing information that can be used to challenge acquittals. Juries are sometimes disbanded in mid-trial, which according to some attorneys could be a pretext for removing jurors likely to acquit.

With AP.