Russia's State Duma has rejected a proposal to revive the death penalty following the Beslan massacre, the Moscow Times reported Thursday.
The Duma, the main chamber of the Russian parliament Wednesday declined a proposal by the Rodina, or Motherland faction to end a moratorium on the death penalty, the Moscow Times said, citing an Interfax news agency report.
The Rodina faction's deputies urged their fellow Duma members to consider refusing to ratify Protocol 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, thereby lifting the current moratorium on the use of the death penalty and resuming its application, the report said.
More than 330 people, half of them children were massacred by Chechen separatist terrorists in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia earlier this month.
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