Russia scraps right to jury trial

[emad]

Source: telegraph

Russia has scrapped the right to trial by jury for people accused of organising violent crime, terrorism and civil unrest.
By Nick Holdsworth in Moscow
5:18PM GMT 12 Dec 2008


The country's parliament voted to back a bill backed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's dominant United Russia party giving three judges the right to rule on cases involving terrorism, hostage-taking, armed insurrection, sabotage and civil disturbances.

The bill will go before Russia's upper house, the Federation Council where approval is expected to be a formality, before it becomes law.

The move came 15 years to the day since the adoption of Russia's first post-Soviet Constitution which reintroduced jury trials abolished by the Bolsheviks in 1917.

Critics said the move raised the spectre of a return to Soviet-style trials controlled solely by judges.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/3725300/Russia-scraps-right-to-jury-trial.html

[WriteDown]

1. But Putin is still a good guy right because he hates Bush?

Can't wait for the Putin defenders to comment on this.

:popcorn:

[Xipe Totec]

2. Gitmo n/t

[WriteDown]

5. I'm no Gitmo defender...

but PALES in comparison.

[High Plains]

8. One can have a nuanced position on Russia and Putin.

It is clearly an authoritarian state (although we are doing our best to compete in that sphere) and moves like this one deserve to be denounced.

On the other hand, we don't need to fall into the rightist position of howling about Russian nationalism (ooh, shades of Joe McCarthy) as a cover for our own imperial interests.

The Russians may be dicks, but Georgia still started that war.

[WriteDown]

9. Who started that war is up for debate....

This maneuver is not.

[damntexdem]

10. Oh, Dubya is licking his chops, wishing he had got this far.

A plague on both their houses.

[awoke_in_2003]

20. He did get that far...

we led by example in the no trial detentions.

[tom_paine]

33. LOL. Bush and Putin are tyrants and partners a la Hitler and Stalin.

Occasionally, they have their "little fallings out" but are always united in their hatred of Liberals, free elections, and anything else the Founding Fathers wrote.

They are the same person, essentially.

[mbperrin]

3. Well, after 7 years, the Russians have finally caught up to us and

the Patriot Act!

Good to see them joining the "civilized nations."

[WriteDown]

6. Big difference....

Not many US citizens in Gitmo and Bushler will be gone in a month. Putin...not so much.

[gratuitous]

4. Bush's eyes turn green with envy

"Doggone it, how could I have missed that one?" The hair on the back of Karl Rove's neck stands on end.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. or something of Rove's stands on end.

He does seem to get off on being a political Napolean.

[druidity33]

7. a big step...

in the wrong direction.

:(

[Esra Star]

11. Say goodbye to Russia for another 100 years...nt

[reorg]

12. Who in their right mind would defend the fucked up judicial system in the US?

Jury selection consultants, plea deals, idiot jurors -- yeah, I guess that's what we need all over the world.

Germany, India, Israel, Switzerland, to name but a few, take a different view. Big deal.

Before you prescribe jury trials as a recipe for democracy in other parts of the world, maybe you should stack your show trials in The Hague with some jurors, too?

[w4rma]

14. A trial by one's peers is one of the most important foundations of criminal justice. (nt)

[reorg]

16. nope

It may have been a nice idea at one time, the reality isn't.

[w4rma]

17. BS. It always has been and always will be. (nt)

[reorg]

19. not in France, Germany, India, Israel, Switzerland etc etc it isn't

but I guess these countries have no foundation of criminal justice, LOL.

Democracy from the US, my ass.

[Libertas1776]

22. ...

Well, excuse the US from actually sticking to its Constitutional principles in this regard.

[reorg]

23. No problem, just keep'em to yourselves n/t

[Libertas1776]

18. ...

Then what, pray tell, would you prefer as an alternative?

JUDGE DREDD?! Sure, why need jury courts when we can have police, judge, jury, and executioner all in one package.:sarcasm:

[reorg]

21. there are alternatives

just look outside the Anglo-American empire.

And no, it's not one single package, care is taken that the judiciary is independent. State attorneys are under supervision of politicians, judges are not. In most cases, there are "elements" of jury trial in that lay judges serve for a period of time along with professional judges in the higher courts.

[Psephos]

30. "under supervision of politicians"

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

No one.

That's the nature of the animal. You sound like Grizzly Man.

[Lionel Mandrake]

35. The British system is better than ours in some respects.

They too have juries, but they no longer allow peremptory challenges. Hence they don't need jury consultants.

[No Elephants]

27. No one "prescribes"

trial by jury as a "recipe for democracy." You can have trial by jury in a monarchy or a dictatorship; and you can have a democracy without trial by jury. Plea deals are also separate from trial by jury. Trial by jury is generally thought to be fairer to the defendant. You may be able to make a good argument that it is not more fair, but you haven't attempted to make that argument.

[NYC Liberal]

28. You can always waive your right to a jury.

Good luck with that...

[Libertas1776]

15. Oi those Russkies

Is it just me, or do the Russian people have a need to be dominated by dictators of all colors:
The Tsars, the Politburo, and now the supposed "democratic" federation.

The only time they ever had a true chance at democracy was in the 90s, I mean come on, whats the worst that the late Yeltsin ever did, get totally wasted and dance like a jackass (quite a difference from throwing reporters out of windows, silencing protests, and usurping power from behind the scenes.) Sounds a lot like the other governments except this time in is not defined based on feudalism or communism, but oligarch-ism and capital.

[ogneopasno]

31. Oh, there was plenty of media intimidation and squelching of protests under Yeltsin.

I guess you could say the difference was the crushing power was spread among the hands of the many in the 90s, rather in than in the hands of a few.

[tom_paine]

24. The Crooked Three-Judge Panel: THAT'S A BUSHIE TRICK!

Oh, the Russian BushPutinists are quick studies. (does that make them PutinBushists?)

BushPutinists in all nations know they need the Plausible Deniability, the Kangaroo Court, for their tyrannies.

Perhaps Karl Rove should move there. He'd be in heaven there. He could work for Putin, which can't be all that different from working for Cheney.

[ohio2007]

25. I think Stalin had it well oiled on his watch

Putin is going back to the old play book....at least he is limiting the judge/jury/executioner gulag courts to terrists and not the general population


“We should support and trust ordinary people but not the small group of status seekers, whose only aim is to get into power,”
http://russiatoday.com/news/news/34589

[tom_paine]

32. Give it time. BushPutinism is slower that the previous forms of totalitarianism

yet it is as unflinchingly relentless in it's pursuit of evil goals.

Of course, I should have known that most of the BushPutinist ideas, as practiced in the Sister Nations of Russia and China, are merely remarketed and rebranded ideas from old totalitarianisms.

Putin is going back to the old playbook, and has been ever since Bushler showed him American Freedom was a joke on the peasantry to keep us docile and at the grind.

And I strongly suspect, that unless Obama works to DeNazify/DeBushify our criminalized government, then his reign, while better for the peasantry, will mean nothing when the next Bushie Tyrant picks up (as Bushler did in 2000) as if the previous 8 years had not even happened.

What worries me is that, if Obama DOES try to restore America to we peasants even in some small but meaningful way, they Bushies will Kennedy or Wellstone him faster than you can say, "State-Controlled Media says no Foul Play or it was a Loned Crazed Gunman (if the "No Foul Play" lie won't work).

[go west young man]

26. Following in America's footsteps.

They've got some catching up to do though. We got em beat with our rendition program and torture tactics.

[Mudoria]

29. Oh I sincerely doubt that... I imagine the Russians have been

welll versed and practiced at those things since the Romanov's were running the show. We may be eager learners since the Bushmeister took office but the Russian's have been masters of the art for a few centuries now.

[ohio2007]

34. Putin is spending his political clout but nobody wants to watch his chess game

Police thwart Moscow rally, seize 90-130 people

MOSCOW – Police thwarted a banned anti-Kremlin protest in central Moscow on Sunday, seizing dozens of demonstrators and shoving them into trucks.

Organizers said 130 people were detained around the capital but police put the number at 90. The opposition movement headed by fierce Kremlin critic and former chess champion Garry Kasparov said the co-leader of the group was one of those seized.

The Other Russia movement organized the protest, in defiance of a ban, to draw attention to Russia's economic troubles and to protest Kremlin plans to extend the presidential term from four years to six.

snip

"Today we saw a police state and its methods,"



snip
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081214/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_opposition

Is it Baracks paygrade to deal with in six months or should Kasparov concede to checkmate ?