A Russian prosecutor called for the death penalty Tuesday against a Chechen separatist fighter accused of killing several Russians, including a baby, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
The prosecutor at Pyatigorsk, in southern Russia, said Ramzes Gaychayev had killed 10 Russians, including a baby, at Chervlyonnaya, 30 kilometres (20 miles) northeast of Grozny, and deserved the death penalty, the agency said.
Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin pronounced a moratorium on executions in 1996 after Russia joined the Council of Europe, which bars capital punishment.
Russian deputies have not yet voted to abolish the death penalty despite pressure from the Kremlin for it to do so, by contrast with the Ukraine parliament which voted to abolish the death penalty last week.
In February a Russian court passed a life sentence on Chechen warlord Salauddin Temirbulatov after a prosecutor had sought the death penalty.
Verdicts on Gaychayev and on Rustam Khalidov, a Chechen fighter facing a 10-year prison sentence for anti-Russian activities, are due to be handed down on April 18 – MOSCOW (AFP)
