MOSCOW, March 26. /TASS/. The leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party has addressed the lower house of parliament with a call for lifting the freeze on the death penalty in the wake of the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall.
"Today we must say clearly: the moratorium that we established on the death penalty in 1996 in connection with our accession to the Council of Europe must be terminated. Today there can be no punishment for these monsters and scumbags other than the death penalty," LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky told the State Duma.
Earlier, some politicians came up with a proposal for using the death penalty again. In particular, the head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, Vladimir Vasilyev, told the media that the introduction of the death penalty for terrorism in Russia would be deeply and thoroughly examined in order to eventually make a decision meeting the expectations of society. The Russian Constitutional Court’s verdict concerning the death penalty does not imply any exceptions or the possibility of canceling the moratorium in individual cases, Andrey Klishas, the head of the Federation Council’s Committee on Constitutional Legislation and Statehood, has told TASS.
On the evening of March 22, a terrorist attack targeted the Crocus City Hall music venue in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Region, just over the Moscow city limits. The current death toll is 139 and 182 people were injured.
Eleven individuals suspected of being involved in the terrorist attack have been apprehended, including four gunmen who were detained in the Bryansk Region, southwest of Moscow, as they attempted to seek refuge by crossing the nearby Ukrainian border.
President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address that, according to preliminary information, the Ukrainian side had prepared "a window" in the border especially for the terrorists to cross undetected. He promised to identify and punish all those who were behind the attack on Crocus City Hall and declared March 24 a day of national mourning for the victims.