Amnesty International Report 1994 - Ukraine

At least 78 people were sentenced to death, and at least one person was known to have been executed. Tensions between parliament and the government over the pace of reforms continued. In September President Leonid Kravchuk took over direct control of the government after Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma and his cabinet resigned. New elections for both parliament and president were called for 1994. A new draft constitution was published for discussion in October. It proposed, among other things, limiting the application of the death penalty to premeditated murder only. In December the Interior Ministry announced that 78 people had been sentenced to death by the Supreme Court during the year for premeditated, aggravated murder. However, no figures were given for the four other crimes which currently carry a possible death sentence, and no details were provided on the number of executions or commutations for 1993. At least one execution came to light through unofficial sources, although the true figure was believed to be much higher. Aleksandr Yepikov had been sentenced to death for murder by a court in Donetsk on 29 January. His appeal was turned down by the Supreme Court on 15 May, but the exact date of execution was not known. Amnesty International urged the authorities to commute all death sentences and to publish comprehensive statistics on the application of the death penalty, in line with international recommendations.