"Introducing the death penalty is not revenge, it is the highest degree of social protection."- Vladimir Antyufeyev
On this date, August 18, 2014, The Donetsk People’s Republic introduced the death penalty and military tribunals. I will post information about the death penalty in that State from several news sources.
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Alexander
Zakharchenko being escorted with his bodyguards from the Oplot Battalion.
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Donetsk Separatists Introduce the Death
Penalty for Treason
By Damien Sharkov
8/18/14 at 1:52 PM
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Alexander
Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic,
attends a news conference in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, August 18, 2014. Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
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The government of the breakaway region of Donetsk in
Ukraine announced that it will introduce the death penalty for serious crimes,
including treason, after the first meeting of the separatist Council of
Ministers today.
“A legislative act provides for the death
penalty for the gravest crimes,” a press release on the Donetsk People’s Republic’s
(DNR) official website read.
The meeting was intended to set the founding stones
of the military court justice system of the new republic, which is not
recognised by the Ukrainian government.
The Council agreed that military tribunals will be
sanctioned to pass the death penalty for offences including treason, espionage,
attempts on the lives of the leadership and sabotage, the Moscow Times
reported.
Separatist leaders agreed that the DNR will use the
Russian Federation’s Criminal Code as a basis, RIA Novosti adds.
"Introducing the death penalty is
not revenge, it is the highest degree of social protection," senior DNR
leader, Vladimir Antyufeyev said in a statement which reiterated that the new
justice code “would greatly facilitate the fight against looting and banditry”.
The military court system will have two tiers, one
for offenders of rank squadron commander and lower, while the other will deal
with offenders of rank battalion commander and higher.
Pro-Russian rebels have been accused of using
capital punishment before. A document surfaced in May signed by Donetsk’s
former Defence Minister Igor ‘Strlkov’ Ghirkin invoking a 1941 Stalin-era law
to order the killing of two DNR officers on charges of looting.
More recently video footage of Crimean separatist
leader Igor Bezler was posted online in June showing Bezler seemingly executing
two pro-Kiev soldiers by firing squad.
While Monday’s meeting of DNR’s council of
ministers only discussed military legislation, the Republic’s Foreign Minister
Alexander Karaman insisted the separatist government would set about “on the
path of humanization of the criminal law”.
The DNR declared independence from Ukraine
following a referendum on 11 May this year. The results of the referendum were
not recognised by the US or EU, but the separatist republic announced the
election of its own government headed by Prime Minister Alexander Borodai.
The DNR’s chairman Denis Pushilin has stated the
republic would ideally like to be adopted as a constituent member of the
Russian Federation.
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Igor Bezler, in green fatigues and without
his walrus moustache, is at a briefing of policemen in Gorlovka. Photograph:
Alexei Kravtsov
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INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.trust.org/item/20140818171533-vitwb
Betrayal, desertion could mean execution, Ukraine rebel leaders warn
fighters
Source: Reuters - Mon, 18 Aug 2014 05:23 PM Author:
Reuters
* Death penalty move comes amid reports of
desertions, defections
* Separatists worried over looting, lawlessness, by
fighters
By Thomas Grove
DONETSK, Ukraine, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Under growing
pressure from a government offensive, the rebel leadership in Ukraine's
battle-torn east warned its fighters on Monday that desertion and betrayal
could be met by execution.
The warning appeared to signal a growing concern by
the leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) over a
breakdown of discipline in the fighting ranks as Kiev's military stepped up its
offensive.
Apart from being worried about desertions, which
the Kiev military says are now telling on rebel ranks, the separatists are also
worried about widespread lawlessness.
"It is no secret that we have
service personnel who carry out crimes. There are instances of looting and use
of violence," Eduard Yakubovsky, the rebel republic's acting
prosecutor-general, said in a video released by the rebels.
Witnesses in Donetsk say armed men have walked into
car showrooms and simply driven off with the stock and firearms store owners
have been forced to give up their stocks after rebels have demanded arms at
gunpoint.
Rebels fear acts such as this are discrediting the
separatist cause even as the leadership steps up a recruitment drive to try to
hold back government forces.
In an announcement carried on its website, the
leadership quoted top officials as expressing anger at looting and
"unauthorised" use of force by some of its fighters against the
civilian population.
Military tribunals would be set up and a criminal
code which included the death penalty for a range of what it called very serious
crimes including espionage, subversion and desertion, would be adopted, it
said.
"The death penalty in this code will
be for the following crimes. First, aggravated murder - that is the murder of
two or more people, or with distinct cruelty, or of a child or a pregnant
woman, and a range of other crimes," Yakubovsky said in the video, which showed him
addressing a leadership meeting.
"Secondly, (it will be handed out)
for certain military crimes committed in war times on the battlefield, such as
handing over military hardware or weapons, desertion and some others," he said at
the meeting on Sunday.
Rebel commander and Muscovite Igor Strelkov, who
has since left his post, had previously ordered executions of those in his
ranks who were known to have breaken the law while he was leading separatist
forces in Slaviansk.
Sections of a criminal code published with the
announcement on Monday said treason, espionage, attempts on the life of rebel
leaders, rebellion, sabotage as well as murder and rape would all qualify for
execution.
Alexander Zakharchenko, the new rebel leader in
Donetsk, was also quoted on the rebel website as saying: "Servicemen must know what crimes they will be punished
for."
"The death sentence is being brought
in as a greater measure of social protection,"
Zakharchenko said at a news conference. "We
haven't shot anyone yet."
Ukrainian military spokesman say that the rebels
are now panicking and many are deserting or defecting to the Ukrainian side as
the government forces makes inroads into rebel-held enclaves in the east,
including Donetsk and Luhansk cities.
Zakharchenko said at the weekend however that the
rebels had received a boost by securing supplies of fresh heavy military
equipment from Russia and 1,200 trained Russian fighters.
"Introducing the death penalty is
not revenge, it is the highest degree of social protection," another
senior rebel leader, Vladimir Antyufeyev, was quoted as saying.
(Writing by Richard Balmforth; editing by Philippa
Fletcher)
INTERNET
SOURCE: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/donetsk-separatists-introduce-death-penalty-for-treason/505271.html
Donetsk Separatists Introduce Death
Penalty for Treason
Reuters
Aug. 18
2014 15:52
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A separatist guards a checkpoint near
the village of Rozsypne in the Donetsk region.
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In
a sign that separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine are struggling with discord
in the ranks, Donetsk separatists announced Monday they were setting up
military tribunals and bringing in the death penalty.
The
self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, or DNR, said it would bring in
military tribunals with the right to pass the death sentence for a string of
offences including treason, espionage, attempts on the lives of the leadership
and sabotage.
The
announcement, issued on the Donetsk's separatists website, quoted leading rebel
officials as saying that other serious violations including looting would also
be dealt with harshly.
"Introducing the death penalty is not revenge, it is the
highest degree of social protection,"
a senior separatist leader, Vladimir Antyufeyev, was quoted as saying.
Reports
of executions orchestrated by separatists in eastern Ukraine have, for months,
been used as a propaganda tool by both sides in the Ukraine conflict, though
none of the reports has been independently verified.
In
one of the most high-profile incidents to date, a document surfaced in May
purportedly showed one of the separatists' main leaders, Igor Strelkov, had
ordered the executions of two DNR militants on charges of looting.
The
document apparently showed Strelkov, a Russian citizen also known as Igor
Girkin, had based the ruling on a 1941 Stalin-era law introducing capital
punishment for theft of property.
A
month later, in June, separatist leader Igor “The Imp” Bezler published a video
showing two blindfolded Ukrainian army officers apparently being shot to death
by a firing squad as a warning to Ukraine government forces. He later dismissed
the video as fake.
Material from the Moscow Times was included in this
report.
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"Introducing the death penalty is not
revenge, it is the highest degree of social protection."
- Vladimir Antyufeyev
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INTERNET
SOURCE:
“DPR" decides to
"protect people" by death penalty
KYIV,
August 18 /Ukrinform/. The so-called Donetsk People's Republic introduced the
death penalty and military tribunals.
According
to the Ostrov with reference to the “DPR” press-center, August 17, the first
meeting "of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of the Donetsk
People's Republic" was held, which approved the "Regulations on
Military Courts of the Donetsk People's Republic" and "The Criminal
Code of the Donetsk People's Republic," developed within the regulatory framework
of the Russian Federation.
As
specified, the death penalty is provided for the most serious crimes. Moreover,
"the First Deputy Prime Minister of the DPR" Vladimir Antyufeyev said
that introduction of the death penalty is "not a revenge, but the highest
degree of social protection."
"We must be on the side of the victim, on the side of his
family. We must protect the people," the Deputy Chairman of the Council Of
Ministers” said.
Moreover,
"the Presidium" has heard a report of "Deputy Prime Minister,
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPR" Aleksandr Karaman on basic
activities of "the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPR." He, in
particular, reported that "Foreign Ministry" has developed and
implements priority measures to create "the image of the legal, democratic
state” in the so-called republic.
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