News
Swiss abolitionists ask Lukashenka to spare lives of death row prisoners in Belarus
L’ACAT-Suisse, a Switzerland-based human rights organization working to end torture and capital punishment, has sent a petition to President Lukashenka, asking him to commute the death sentences handed down to Aliaksandr Zhylnikau and Viachaslau Sukharko. Read more…
Week against the Death Penalty: We do not celebrate, we express solidarity
The fifth annual Week against the Death Penalty concluded on October 12, World Day against the Death Penalty, with an artistic event at the Lithuanian embassy in Minsk, which told about the pain suffered by the families of death convicts. Read more…
Viasna again calls to halt executions at PACE event on World Day against the Death Penalty
On October 10, the issue of ongoing executions in Belarus was discussed at a meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly pf the Council of Europe. The event was scheduled to mark the World Day against the Death Penalty. The discussion involved Valery Varanetski, chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives, and deputy chairperson of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” Valiantsin Stefanovich. Read more…
Treatment of death row prisoners in Belarus
While on death row, convicts face a number of violations of their rights. During their one monthly visit with a family member (a right accorded under Article 174 of the Criminal Law Enforcement Code), they are forbidden from referring to detention conditions. Read more…
Belarusian Orthodox church supports moratorium on death penalty
His Eminence Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavl, the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, has spoken in favor of introducing a moratorium on the death penalty in the country. Read more…
EU, CoE reiterate call to introduce moratorium on executions in Belarus
Joint Declaration by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on the European and World Day against the Death Penalty Read more…
Week Against the Death Penalty: October 5-10
From 5 to 10 October, the annual Week Against the Death Penalty will be held in Belarus. This year’s evets will focus on the conditions of detention on death row. Read more…
“They should have shot me instead”: The stories of death row inmates’ family members
In Belarus, you cannot sentence a woman to death — this is the law. But it is women who suffer most from death sentences. Over the 27 years of Belarus’s independence, more than 400 men have been shot in Belarus. Behind each of them, there is the ruined life of at least one woman. We collected the stories of five of them. Read more…
Pope Francis declares death penalty inadmissible in all cases
Pope Francis has changed the teachings of the Catholic faith to officially oppose the death penalty in all circumstances, the Vatican has said. Read more…
Death row prisoner Ihar Hershankou loses 18 kilos on hunger strike
Ihar Hershankou started his hunger strike on June 27 to protest violations of his right to correspondence, after all his complaints, including to the Prosecutor General, the Department of Corrections and Belarus’s envoy to the UN, as well as many letters to relatives, failed not reach their destinations. Read more…
Amnesty International: Iranian in Belarus at risk of imminent deportation, faces death penalty in home country
Iranian citizen Mehrdad Jamshidian, who suffers from acute ill-health, was detained on 14 June in Belarus. He is at imminent risk of deportation to Iran, where he may be subjected to torture and the death penalty for ‘apostasy’ and murder accusations. Read more…
UN Human Rights Committee registers complaint of death convict Hershankou
On July 13, the UN Human Rights Committee confirmed the registration of an individual communication submitted on behalf of Ihar Hershankou, who was sentenced to death by the Mahilioŭ Regional Court on July 21, 2017. Read more…
Death row prisoner Ihar Hershankou goes on hunger strike
Ihar Hershankou, who was earlier sentenced to death, says he is beginning a hunger strike while on death row in Minsk’s detention center No. 1 to protest numerous violations of his right to correspondence, Viasna learned from the prisoner’s mother. Read more…
Amnesty International: Unprecedented Supreme Court decision to suspend death sentences
"This is a hugely significant and unprecedented decision for the only country in the region that has continued to execute people all these years." Read more…
PACE rapporteurs condemn two recent executions in Belarus
Yves Cruchten (Luxembourg, SOC), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, and Andrea Rigoni (Italy, ALDE), former PACE rapporteur on the situation in Belarus, have strongly condemned the execution of Aliaksei Mikhalenia and Viktor Liotau, which reportedly took place in secret in mid-May. Read more…
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