The death penalty in Estonia has been officially banned since March 18, 1998 under Protocol No. 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights , to which Estonia has acceded. Earlier death sentences were imposed in Estonia from 1920 to 1992 [1] .
History
From February 1, 1920, and until Estonia joined the USSR in 1940, the death penalty was present in the Republic among the penalties provided for by criminal law. Criminals sentenced to capital punishment could choose between suicide by poisoning or death by hanging [2] . On February 1, 1935, the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Estonia entered into force, according to which the hanging procedure was described [3] :
An hour before the stipulated time for the execution of the condemned must be taken to prison, where the state prosecutor will read out the verdict and invite the prisoner to commit suicide. If he agrees, the prosecutor will provide the convict with a glass of poison - the type of poison will be determined by the National Health Council. If the condemned does not take the poison within 5 minutes, then he will be hanged.
The military tribunal could sentence the convict to death through execution. In this case, the sentence was executed by an execution team of eight people.
Since 1940, all death sentences were imposed in accordance with Soviet law in the Estonian SSR. Until 1964, all those sentenced to death were held in a special death chamber in Tallinn. Later, sentences were sentenced to Estonian suicide bombers in other cities of the USSR [4] . On September 11, 1991, the last death sentence on Rein Oruste, executed by firing at the back of the head for the murder, was passed in the country [5] .
Disputes
The death penalty remained in Estonian criminal law until 1998, but the political elite, which supported the further European integration of the Republic of Estonia, advocated the abolition of the death penalty and its replacement with life imprisonment, despite the increase in the proportion of serious crimes in the early 1990s. On January 13, 1997, discussions began on the ratification of the draft accession to Protocol No. 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting the death penalty in the Riigikogu.
In 2015, the Council of Churches of Estonia conducted a survey and found that out of 1,002 people aged 15 to 74, about 70% supported the restoration of the death penalty for particularly serious crimes [6] [7] .
Notes
- ↑ ERR . The court did not prematurely release Oleg Pyatnitsky (Rus.) , Who had served nearly 35 years, ahead of schedule , and ERR (January 24, 2018). Date of treatment January 24, 2018.
- ↑ Gilbertian Law in Esthonia , Canberra Times (ACT: 1926 - 1995) (June 26, 1930), P. 5. Date of treatment July 9, 2017.
- ↑ ESTONIA: Authorized Suicides (English) // Time. - 1934-11-05. - ISSN 0040-781X .
- ↑ Retk vanglaellu aitab tunnetada vabaduse väärtuse mõõtmatust (est.)
- ↑ Raidkiri bandiitide kalmistul palub ka nende pattudele andestust (est.)
- ↑ 70% eestimaalastest toetab surmanuhtlust (est.)
- ↑ Elust, Usust ja Usuelust 2015 " (Est.)
Literature
- Surma mahalaskmise läbi! Esmaspäev, 18. aprill 1932, nr 16, lk 5.