The World - News from Nov. 10, 1987

The Soviet government announced that it is rewriting its criminal code to abolish internal exile as punishment, narrow the list of death penalty offenses and shorten the maximum prison term from 15 to 10 years. The proposed overhaul of the code by a government review committee was discussed by Justice Minister Boris V. Kravtsov in an interview with the official Tass news agency. He was quoted as saying consideration is also being given to broadening the rights of defense lawyers, presumably to allow them better access to information obtained during criminal investigations. The proposed changes were called for under Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s perestroika, or restructuring of Soviet society.