New Soviet Code Will End Banishment, Internal Exile

The Soviet Union, as part of a major reform of its criminal justice system, disclosed plans Friday to drop the punishments of banishment and internal exile, which have frequently been used to silence political dissidents.

A revision of the country’s criminal code, published in draft form in the government newspaper Izvestia for public discussion, would make imprisonment the punishment of almost last resort, reversing years of legal practice here.

Judges will be permitted under the new legislation to defer the sentencing of first offenders to encourage their rehabilitation; they are also encouraged to make greater use of probation and parole than before, rather than imprisonment and forced labor.

“The deprivation of freedom can only be applied if the goals (of the court in imposing sentence) cannot be achieved by other forms of punishment,” the draft code declares.

The proposed legislation, under discussion for more than a year and expected to be adopted in the spring, retains capital punishment but sharply restricts its use, eliminating embezzlement, corruption and other economic crimes from the list of those punishable by death.

The death penalty may be imposed “as an exceptional form of punishment until its elimination” for treason, espionage, terrorism, sabotage, first-degree murder and rape of a minor, according to the draft law. Under the proposed legislation, minors under 18, women and men over 60 may not be executed; at present, only pregnant women are exempt.

These changes along with those expected in a companion law defining specific crimes constitute a major reform, one of those at the core of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s program of perestroika, the restructuring of the whole Soviet political, economic and social system.

The new philosophy has already been put into effect with the early release in the past 18 months of an estimated 620,000 prisoners, about a third of the whole Soviet prison population, most of whom were jailed for ordinary crimes.

Put another way: 32% of those now convicted of crimes are jailed compared to 56% three years ago and to the 22% to 24% expected under the new legislation.

In the past year, about 200 labor camps have been closed because of the new policies, according to Soviet officials, and within the next year, about 60% of the camps will have been emptied.

The elimination of internal exile and banishment, however, are particularly symbolic of the new era that Gorbachev hopes the reforms will bring.

Used by Russia’s Czars

Used by the Russian czars to rid themselves of undesirables, particularly those who challenged their absolute rule, exile and banishment--the forced expulsion from one’s country--grew with the gulag, that vast system of penal colonies, labor camps and places of “obligatory settlement” through which the dictator Josef Stalin built and secured his rule.

Ordinary criminals as well as political prisoners frequently were given sentences of up to five years in internal exile, usually in Siberia, the Far North or remote parts of Central Asia, following their terms in prison or labor camp.

Thus, a routine five-year sentence for theft could become a full 10 years, and dissidents typically jailed for seven years on charges of “anti-Soviet agitation” usually were allowed to return to their homes only after 12 years.

‘Very Russian Punishment’

“It was a prison without walls, a prison in which every ordinary person was one of your guards,” Sergei Abramov, who now describes himself as “a one-time political dissident,” said recently, recalling his three years in exile in Kazakhstan in Soviet Central Asia in the 1970s. “It was not as hard as the camps, of course, but somehow you feel the restrictions more acutely. . . . Exile is a very Russian punishment.”

Although the proposed law still gives Soviet courts similar, though more restricted, authority to impose a “limitation of freedom” under which convicts would have to live and work in prescribed areas, legal specialists who have helped draft the new penal code said a major goal was to eliminate the practice of internal exile as such.

“Banishment and exile are almost political, even cultural institutions among us,” one of the lawyers who took part in the drafting remarked. “So, we were asked what would be done with these people who, in the past, would be in exile. When we said, ‘Let them be free, let them speak,’ we had some very hard discussions. . . .

“This is much more than a legal change, something dry that lawyers argue about. This is a political change, a social change and, above all, a moral change. It is very important for us to know that, for the first time in centuries, a dissident will not--cannot even--be banished just because of his criticism or opposition to the government.”

Other parts of the draft legislation place new restrictions on compulsory medical and psychiatric care, another area of controversy following the frequent use over two decades of Soviet mental hospitals as little more than political prisons in which dissidents were held on grounds they were suffering from “sluggish schizophrenia” or even with illnesses that had yet to be diagnosed.

While expected, these and other impending changes underscore the Soviet leadership’s declared commitment to increase the protection of the individual and enhance the observance of human rights through the strengthening of the country’s legal system.

Restoration of Rights

The legislation makes specific provision for the first time for the restoration of political and civil rights to Soviet citizens who have served their sentences.

An important new provision bars criminal prosecution of those taking “professional and economic risks.” This would apply to managers of Soviet enterprises who, in the past, would face charges if they violated laws or administrative regulations in order to achieve what the law now calls “socially useful goals.”

At the same time, it places the burden on the prosecution to prove that a person carrying out a “criminal order” knew it to be wrong. While the immediate effect might be to absolve low-level officials executing the orders of a Stalin and “not aware of the criminal code,” the intent is to hold those at the policy-making levels responsible for resulting crimes.

The draft legislation also declares its intent to promote “the preservation of the peace and security of humanity” and of the environment--frequent themes of Gorbachev.

Genocide Punishment

In a politically significant addition to the code, genocide is grouped among the serious crimes punishable by imprisonment of up to 15 years.

This responds to Armenian demands, made frequently over the past year because of the conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan as well as Armenians’ own tragic history, for tougher laws to deter “pogroms” against them.

Under current legislation, Azerbaijanis could be charged only with murder and mass public disorder for their participation in the massacres in which at least 28 Armenians were killed in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait late last February.

One defendant was sentenced to death for involvement in the killing of seven Armenians, but others faced charges that were quickly dismissed under current legislation.

In a major resolution, the special Communist Party conference convened in late June to chart the basis of perestroika called for broad legal reforms to underpin and then codify the changes in the political, economic and social system.