Press Release, 21.02.2020

Photo (from left to right): Ivan Bolshakov, Nikolai Rybakov and Valery Goryachev.

The Federal Bureau of the Yabloko Party proposes to include into the Constitution a clause running that torture is a serious crime. A complaint of torture should be the basis for the immediate initiation of criminal proceedings. A verdict can not be announced while the investigation into the torture has not been completed. Such rules should be contained in the Basic Law. In addition, Yabloko opposed lifelong immunity for former presidents.

Article 21 of the current version of the Constitution states that no one shall be subjected to torture. However, torture is still practiced in modern Russia, and this is a serious problem for the whole of Russian society, Nikolai Rybakov, Chairman of the Yabloko party, says. The most striking example of this has recently been the verdict in the so-called Network case when young people got imprisonment terms from six to 18 years. The confessions underlying this sentence were obtained under torture.

We propose that the legal conflict be resolved when the court has to choose which evidence to believe – that given under torture during the investigation or the one voiced during the trial, when the defendant claims that he/she was tortured, Ivan Bolshakov, Deputy Chairman of the party, explains.

The Bureau of the Yabloko party proposes to supplement Article 123 of the Constitution with paragraph 3.1 as follows:

“The parties have equal rights to present and study evidence in court. No evidence has a predetermined force. The court cannot refuse the parties to satisfy the petition for summoning witnesses, adducing evidence and their investigation into the case. Torture is a grave crime. Statements by defendants, victims and witnesses about the use of torture, physical or mental violence against them during the preliminary investigation are subject to verification by immediate initiation of a criminal case and conducting an investigation. The case cannot be completed before the end of the investigation of the statement of torture, if such a statement of torture was made during consideration of the case.”

In addition, the Yabloko Bureau opposed the amendment envisaging immunity for former Presidents. “Thus, Putin himself admits that in the future a trial may be possible against him on the issues of the war in Ukraine, Syria, corruption issues and for the downed Boeing,” says Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov. If the procedure for removing immunity from the incumbent President through impeachment is prescribed by law, it is not clear how the immunity of former heads of state can be lifted, Rybakov notes.

Yabloko has already introduced the first package of its amendments to the Constitution (alternative to those of Vladimir Putin) through five regional parliaments. The amendments deal with the powers of the President, the Federal Assembly, the government, as well as strengthening the independence of the judiciary.