Ukrainian communists propose reintroduction of capital punishment

The Communist Party of Ukraine has proposed the reintroduction of the death penalty in Ukraine for especially grave crimes. "After the events in Mykolayiv, and after my visits to Vinnytsia and Khmelnytsky regions, where I talked to voters, I can say that the overwhelming majority of voters demand the reintroduction of capital punishment in Ukraine," leader of the Communist Party faction Petro Symonenko said at the sitting of the Conciliation Council on March 19.

He asked that a draft bill tabled by the communists that proposes to reintroduce capital punishment in Ukraine be put on parliament's agenda.

In turn, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn said he had received the draft law and had sent it for consideration to the profile committee of the parliament.

He added that there was a draft law in the Verkhovna Rada authored by Regions Party MP Vasyl Kyseliov that foresees life imprisonment for premeditated murder.

Verkhovna Rada central judicial department head Mykhailo Tepliuk said that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine had taken a decision according to which the death penalty was unconstitutional.

"That's why the adoption of a law that foresees capital punishment could be declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine," Tepliuk said.